Rising from the Ashes
by rjwritergirl
Summary: Severus Snape heard the prophecy, he told Voldemort, Dumbledore, and then he took matters into his own hands. He told the Potters himself. Because of that, Lily lived. With Lily alive, what changed? What if Harry had a little sister, how would that change things? Snape and Lily are in this story, along with Sirius and Remus and several OC's. Chapters posted every Saturday!
1. Chapter 1

**I read somewhere that JK Rowling had decided that Lily was pregnant when she and James were killed. What would happen if Lily lived and was able to raise Harry? What would have changed? and what would have changed if Harry had had a younger sister thrown into everything?**

**Here's the first chapter, I promise that the next ones will be longer.**

Severus Snape had a problem. A big problem.

_She'll die and it's my fault, because I had to go and tell Voldemort about the prophecy. Oh why couldn't I have figured out who it was and just warned her?_ He anguished as he walked. He suddenly stopped and looked around, _how ironic_. He thought. He had come back to the park where he and Lily had spent so much time together before their Hogwarts years. It was where he had first seen Lily, where he'd first fallen in love with her.

In the end it was her eyes that undid him. Her big emerald green eyes; who knew that at 10 years old one could find a soul mate and at 16 loose her. He couldn't help but think as he thought of the time, the one time where he'd slipped up and called her that unforgivable name.

_"Mudblood!"_

He sighed, if he and Lily were still friends he'd just go to her house and warn her, but they weren't friends anymore, she wouldn't trust him farther than she could spit. _But she'll do anything to protect her little boy_. The thought occurred to him as he sat down at one of the park benches. _If she gets wind of Harry being in trouble, she'll do anything to protect him._

Severus looked at his watch. 4:30 if he hurried, he could get to Godrics Hollow before James came home from work, but wait, did James even have a job? I'll have to risk it. He decided. He quickly got up and, after making sure no one was around, apperated to Godrics Hollow.

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"You have to believe me!" Severus cried, his dark eyes flashing in frustration.

"Why? So you can turn us over to Voldemort?" James asked, clenching the hilt of his wand.

"No! So you, Lily and Harry don't die!" Severus roared, his fear of Lily dying making him angry. "You don't seem to understand." Severus spoke the next words like separate sentences. "Voldemort. Wants. To. Kill. You. Lily. And. Harry." He paused for a moment "Harry especially." He added.

"Why would Voldemort want to kill Harry?" both James' jaw and his grip on his wand slackened as he stared at Severus in shock.

"It doesn't matter," Lily's voice spoke from the doorway. Both Severus and James whirled around to face Lily who was white-faced in shock "We've got to do everything we can to keep Harry safe James." She said.

James nodded "I know that Lily, but…" he trailed off to look at Severus "How can we know if Severus is telling the truth?"

"We have no choice but to trust him James, Harry's life is at stake." Lily said. She clutched the boy in her arms until he started to wiggle, trying to get down. She set him down and looked James straight in the eye. "I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to Harry; James, you know that." She said.

James nodded, and looked down; the boy had waddled over to him and was now playing with the hem of James' robes. Harry stuck some of the material in his mouth, but then spit it out, apparently not liking the taste of the cloth. Harry then looked up at James and grinned, showing off the 2 teeth he had. James looked to Severus, his mind made up. "What do we need to do?" he asked.

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"Lily! He's here!" James shouted he quickly grabbed his wand and apperated up to the bedroom. "Lily he's here, quick, apparate away! Take Harry, keep him safe!" James ordered.

Lily looked petrified, but she went to pick up Harry. Before she could reach him however, the door to the bedroom was blasted open and Voldemort stepped in.

James instinctively got in front of Lily, as if to protect her from the spell he knew Voldemort would be using on him.

"Move out of the way you silly boy." Voldemort's voice sounded cold and cruel.

"No." James said. He stood up straighter and brandished his wand at Voldemort. "I'm not."

"Move!" Voldemort ordered.

"No." James said again, he opened his mouth to cast a spell at Voldemort, but the latter got there first.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort roared. The green light hit James and he fell to the ground, dead.

The force of the spell knocked Lily to the side of the room, she started to get up to try to get in between Harry and Voldemort, but he turned his wand on Harry too quickly.

"Avada Kedavra!" he roared a second time, Lily saw the green light move towards Harry, almost in slow motion. She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. The curse hit Harry and everything went black.

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_Please Review!_


	2. Chapter 2

**I read somewhere that JK Rowling had decided that Lily was pregnant when she and James were killed. What would happen if Lily lived and was able to raise Harry? What would have changed? and what would have changed if Harry had had a younger sister thrown into everything?**

**Thank you to those who reviewed! While I write for fun, I love getting reviews. I'm glad that people are enjoying this story, I've been having fun writing it.**

**Here's chapter 2, I'll do my best to post every Monday.**

**Enjoy!**

******Chapter: 2**

"I think she's coming around." The voice sounded familiar.

Lily stirred and opened her eyes; "Harry!" tears sprang to her eyes. "Voldemort….. Harry…. James!" she said, she tried to get up but was gently but firmly pushed back into a laying position.

"Harry's fine," The voice said.

"He's playing with my cousins' little girl." Another voice added and Lily looked around; Remus was sitting at her left and Sirius on her right. Sirius was the one who had spoken last. "My cousin Andromeda, remember her? She came to your wedding, as one of my guests."

Lily nodded "Yeah, what happened?" she asked "Voldemort came to our house…" she started "He killed James…he turned on Harry, but, how can Harry be alive?" she asked.

"We weren't sure." A voice said. Lily looked and saw that it was Professor Dumbledore. "We were actually, quite hoping you could tell us."

"I'm not sure what happened." Lily said. "V-Voldemort killed James. James was standing in front of me; I was knocked to the side because of the force of the spell." She said. "A-After that, I don't really remember what happened." She said, closing her eyes while trying to remember.

It was while she was trying to remember that she heard it, a baby's squeal. Her eyes zipped open again "Is that Harry?" she asked.

"Yeah" a girl who looked to be about 8 or 9 came in. She was holding Harry as far away from her body as she possibly could she took him to Sirius. "Ewwwwww" she said, "He needs his diaper changed and I'm not doing it." She deposited Harry in Sirius' lap and turned to leave.

"I'll pay you an extra galleon to change his diaper." Sirius picked Harry up and sniffed the air carefully, then made a face as the stench reached his nostrils.

The girl turned and gave Sirius a disgusted look. "If you're going to pay me to do something disgusting you may as well pay me good!" she retorted, then she held her arms out, "Knock the price up 4 galleons and you've got a deal." she said.

"Nymphadora….." Sirius started.

"Don't call me NYMPHADORA." The girl said, and amazingly, her hair turned red as she glared at Sirius.

Lily let out a gasp as she watched it. Sirius smiled, and said "She's a metamorphagus, didn't I tell you Lily?" and handed Harry to Remus who stood up and lay Harry on the couch he'd been sitting on.

Remus quickly took Harry's pants off and started to take the diaper off, but then stopped because of the stench.

"Ewwwww." The girl said her hair had turned back to the light brown it used to be. "Gross!"

"Yeah, isn't it?" Remus agreed. He took his wand out and scrugified the dirty diaper.

"Why don't you just put a new diaper on him?" Lily spoke up from the bed.

"Because we don't know where they are" Sirius said. "Besides, we aren't in Godrics Hollow anymore."

"Where are we?" Lily asked, looking around at her surroundings for the first time, she was in a rectangular room that had a window on one wall. The door was opposite it, where Dumbledore was standing.

"St Mungo's" Professor Dumbledore said "Lily, I wouldn't ask you but it is of the utmost importance that I know what went on two nights ago. I'll have to ask you to tell me everything that you remember about what happened."

"I told you." Lily said a bit impatiently. "I was knocked to the side after James was killed." Her eyes filled with tears. "Then Voldemort turned on Harry." She said "I don't remember what happened after that."

"There might be a way." Dumbledore said, thoughtfully.

"How?" Lily asked.

"Just think of that night." Dumbledore said, getting his wand out.

"Whoa, what are you going to do to her?" Sirius and Remus got up, reaching for their wands.

"I won't hurt her, I assure you. I'm merely going to be borrowing the memory from her." Dumbledore said. He smiled to put the two men at ease.

Lily sat up and thought of the night, she felt Dumbledore's wand gently touching her scalp. Then, the most curious feeling washed over her, she could see, the night, she could see what had happened at Godrics Hollow. She closed her eyes and tried to block it out.

"Don't block it out, not just yet." Dumbledore whispered "I've almost got it." Then it was as if she had forgotten about it, almost, she knew what had happened, but there was no feeling in it. It was as if James hadn't been the love of her life. "What did you do?" she asked, looking up at Dumbledore.

"I have pulled the memory from your mind; there is a way that you will be able to get it back. But this way I get to look on the night as a passive observer."

Lily nodded. "Okay." She said.

"This way, I can tell if you blacked out right after you were pushed to the other side of the room, also; I can also see what happened to Harry." Dumbledore said.

Lily nodded again. Just then they all heard a commotion out in the corridor. Sirius and Remus both stood up again, wands at the ready in case it was needed, but then they heard a woman's voice shouting "Get out of my way, or I'll hex you so bad you'll be renting a bed next to Lily Potter, now get out of my way and let me see her!"

"There are too many people in there already; she may not even be up….." A healer started.

"I don't care if she's up or not, I need to see her for myself, make sure she's alright." The woman's voice said, it choked at the last part, and it sounded like the woman had a heavy head cold.

"Minerva?" Dumbledore turned around and tapped the healer's shoulder, "I realize there are too many people in the room, so if Nymphadora and I leave, could Minerva come in?" he asked.

"Only one person needs to leave, we only allow 4 people to visit at a time, unless there is a large immediate family." The Healer said.

"Well, I've got urgent business at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said, he held up the flask with the memory in it, "I'll be back later tonight to give this back Lily," He said, then apperated away.

Minerva McGonagall came bustling in, for a moment she just stared around the room, Nymphadora was making faces at Harry; she was using her Metamorphagus skills to change her face for Harry's amusement. Remus was sitting on one side of Lily's bed Sirius on the other. She looked about ready to cry as she saw Lily on the bed fully awake.

A second Healer came in, taking Lily's pulse and writing something down on a clipboard. No one spoke while the healer was in the room, the only sound was Harry laughing as Nymphadora changed her nose to a pig's snout.

The healer finally left and Minerva settled down on the chair Remus offered her.

"What happened?" she asked.

"We've been trying to figure that out." Sirius said. He sighed dropped his head in his hands.

"The last thing I remember is Voldemort killing James, he was standing in front of me and I was knocked to the side of the room by the force of the spell. Voldemort turned his wand on Harry and I don't remember what happened after that." Lily said. "Dumbledore 'borrowed' the memory from me and he said he'd be able to look on as a passive observer. Maybe he thinks I know what happened afterwards, but I'm just blocking it out at the moment," Lily shrugged.

"His pensive." Minerva said thoughtfully. She looked up and smiled at Lily, "He'll pour the memory into his pensive and he'll be able to see what happened when You-Know-Who came to Godrics Hollow." Minerva explained.

Lily nodded. "Okay."

"What I would like to know is how Voldemort…" Remus ignored Minerva's wince "knew where you and James were Lily." He said. He suddenly glared at Sirius "why the heck you haven't had Sirius kicked out of the hospital and chucked in Azkaban is beyond me Lily."

Lily looked confused as Sirius started talking "Moony, I've tried to explain to you…"

"James and I used Wormy as Secret Keeper." Lily said, interrupting both Sirius and Remus as the latter opened his mouth to say something.

"Told you." Sirius probably couldn't help but snap to Remus, as if this was a childhood game from their years at Hogwarts.

"We didn't tell you because we thought….well, we thought…." Sirius started to stammer as he started talking again.

Lily sighed "We thought you were the one who was feeding Voldemort the information Remus." She said.

Remus was shocked for a second he just stared at the two of them. "How could you even think such a thing?" he asked. "I would rather die than betray you or James; Lily." He said.

"Remus, I'm sorry, I…." Lily started but Remus interrupted her.

"How could you even think that?" he demanded. "I know many werewolves are enticed by what Voldemort is saying, but I'm not, you should know that Lily!" he was nearly shouting as his body shook with anger.

"Remus…" she began.

"I don't want to hear it Lily" Remus snapped, he stalked out of the room.******  
**

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_Please Review!_


	3. Chapter 3

**I read somewhere that JK Rowling had decided that Lily was pregnant when she and James were killed. What would happen if Lily lived and was able to raise Harry? What would have changed? and what would have changed if Harry had had a younger sister thrown into everything?**

**Thank you to those who reviewed! While I write for fun, I love getting reviews. I'm glad that people are enjoying this story, I've been having fun writing it.**

**Here's chapter 3, I'll do my best to post every Monday, however I just got a job out of state, so I'm in the middle of a move. I may not be able to post in the next couple of weeks.**

**Enjoy!**

******Chapter: 3**

Lily Potter sighed, "There's just no way out of this for him." she muttered. Throwing the Daily Prophet down and muttering a few of her favorite swear words, she added a few of James' old favorites as well. Sirius was going to Azkaban and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She'd tried "Heaven knows I've tried to stop it, but without Peter there's no evidence."

She sighed again as Harry started crying, he'd been crying a lot lately, Lily could tell that he wanted James. James and Harry had been so close, and now James was gone. _She_ could hardly understand what was going on, how could she expect an 18-month old baby to understand? _And it's not like I can go to my friends for help_. Lily thought as she got up to go tend to Harry. _Sirius is going to prison for something he didn't do, Remus is refusing to talk to me, and my other friends from Hogwarts aren't talking to me because they don't want to upset me about James' death._

"Hello little prince." Lily sang as she walked into his room, they now lived in a two bedroom flat near Diagon Alley. Harry stopped crying for a moment but, after seeing that it wasn't his dad, started crying again.

"I know you miss Dad, Harry." Lily said, lifting the toddler out of his crib and sitting down in the rocking chair with him, "I miss Dad too."

"Dada." Harry said, looking around for James.

Lily tried not to cry as she continued to rock him. Harry started crying again she got up and smelled his diaper, it was clean. "Let's go see if your hungry bud." Lily suggested. "Let's go get some food."

"Foo foo." Harry said. He leaned his head up against her shoulder. "Dada foo." He said.

"I know you want Daddy to make your lunch, but Dad's not here anymore." Lily said, every time she said it; it seemed just` a little more real.

Lily paused as she heard someone knocking on the door; she was tired of answering questions from nosey reporters from various wizarding magazines or newspapers. She opened the door, hoping that if it was a news reporter that the fact that Harry was crying might send them a hint that she couldn't talk.

"Hello Lily." The soft voice said, it was Severus.

"Severus." Lily said, surprised, she opened the door all the way and indicated that he could come in. "Please, come in." She said.

"Thank you." He said, nervously stepping into the front hallway of Lily's flat. "I wanted to make sure you were all right." He said. "I mean I wanted to make sure that Voldemort didn't hurt you."

"Thank you for asking Severus, no, Voldemort didn't hurt me. When he killed James, I was knocked to the side of the room by the force of the spell. He turned his wand on Harry too quickly for me to get up and get in between him and Harry." Lily said. Harry started to kick and he started whimpering as he tried to get down trying to go into the kitchen himself.

"I-I gotta feed him." Lily said, "Come back in here if you want to talk." She called, leading the way to the kitchen.

Severus followed her; the flat was clean, and organized. Lily was just setting Harry down in his high chair when Severus walked into the kitchen. She bustled around the kitchen, getting a banana and placing the peeled fruit in front of Harry who started to poke it.

Lily continued to clean the kitchen as Severus tried to think of something to say. It was as she was putting a potion bottle away that Severus became aware that she was trying to hide the label from him, which sparked his curiosity. He took a sneak at the part of the label that was showing. It was a potion for nerves. _Well, considering her husband died less than a month ago, she's got a young toddler to take care of and the press is hounding her for "What really happened at Godrics Hollow" I'm not surprised she's taking it._ He thought. _But why is she hiding it from me?_

But the bottle was wet and it fell from her hands, rolling over the countertop. In Lily's efforts to keep the potion from spilling all over the counter, she righted the bottle, and the label was turned towards Severus. On the front was a picture of a woman who was obviously pregnant. _She's pregnant._ He realized. He picked up the bottle and studied it for a moment before Lily grabbed it.

"How far along are you?" he asked, he could tell that she'd seen him looking at the bottle and figured he should ask.

"Six weeks." She said tightly, just as there was another knock on the door. "I swear, if that's one more _bloody_ reporter." Lily muttered, snatching her wand and practically stomping to answer the front door, "WHAT?" Severus could hear Lily even in the back of the flat. But then there was silence, followed by a shriek of joy and a man's startled shout. "What the?" Severus muttered, going to the hallway so he could see out the front door. He saw Lily hugging Remus Lupin. Once Remus set Lily down he looked past her and saw Severus. "What's he doing here?" he asked roughly, pulling his wand out. "He's a Death Eater Lily."

"Don't worry I was just leaving." Severus sneered; he quickly left, pushing past Remus and Lily.

"What was he doing here?" Remus asked again after Severus was out of sight.

"He wanted to make sure that I was all right, apparently I'm still one of his friends." Lily said accusingly.

"Lily…." Remus started. "I was angry; I'm sorry for yelling at you and Sirius. Forgive me?" he asked.

Lily sighed and studied him for a moment. "I'm still thinking about it." She conceded. "Come on in, Harry will want to see you." she said.

Remus followed Lily into the kitchen and saw Harry in his high chair, squishing a banana between his fingers and giggling like a hyena. Remus couldn't help but smile, Harry sure was cute.

"Hey bud." Remus greeted the toddler. Harry looked up and grinned he waved his hands at Remus, getting squished banana everywhere. Remus laughed, picking Harry up and swinging him up high. Harry started to laugh, a high shrieking laugh that he usually only reserved for when James was teasing or playing with him.

Lily smiled and let Remus play with Harry as she started to fix dinner; she made enough for both her and Remus. It looked like he hadn't had much to eat in the past few days. She glanced at the calendar and saw that the full moon had been three nights earlier. "How are you doing?" Remus asked, grabbing a rag and wiping the banana off of Harry's hands. "I know the press has been hounding you for what really happened." He said.

"I'm doing fine; Dumbledore was nice enough to let us stay at his old house while I searched for a place for Harry and I." Lily said. She placed a plate of hot food in front of Remus. "Eat." she all but ordered. She turned and grabbed a plate for herself and dished some food onto it.

"That was nice of him." Remus said, spooning some food into his mouth

"So how about you?" Lily asked. "How are you doing?"

"I've gotten an interview for a position in a bookshop in Diagon Alley tomorrow hopefully something positive will come from that." Remus said.

"That's not what I mean." Lily said quietly, "Full moon was three nights ago Remus." She paused, "How are you?" she asked, emphasizing her question.

Remus sighed and became aware that Harry was squirming on his lap, he was reaching for the roll on Remus' plate and he broke off part of it and gave it to Harry.

He sighed again and decided to tell her the truth. "It was torture." He said. Ever since their fifth year, Remus had never had to spend one transformation alone, even after their graduation, James and Sirius had gone up to the shrieking shack and spent the night in transformation with Remus. Now, as Remus thought back, Peter had never done that, not really, he'd done it only when asked to, when James or Sirius had been unable to, such as when Lily was in labor before Harry was born and Sirius had been out on Order business.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there." Lily said, "But I've had to stop trying to achieve becoming an Animagus for right now."

"Because of the baby." Remus said.

Lily nodded not surprised Remus knew about the baby, his werewolf senses had picked up on her being pregnant with Harry before she'd even known. Her eyes suddenly filled with tears. "How am I going to do this Remus?" she asked. "I can't raise two children all alone." She said, wiping at her eyes.

Remus quickly put Harry down, who stood up and started walking off in the direction of the open front door. He slipped an arm around Lily's shoulders. "You can." He said. "Because I'm going to help you." He said. Lily looked up at him, a bit confused. "I'll come by as often as I can and help out." Remus told her, "I'll take care of Harry while you're busy with the new baby."

Lily nodded; the tears in her eyes were now tears of gratefulness. "Thank you Remus." She said. She gave him a hug and Remus could feel her tears soaking through the shirt he was wearing.

Just then she looked up "Where's Harry?" she asked not remembering when she's last heard his coos and cries.

"I put him down." Remus said, looking around "I'm sure he just went into the other room."

A quick glance told them how wrong they were, "He might have gone into on of the bedrooms." Lily said, getting up herself, she nearly ran into the bedrooms, calling out Harry's name as she went, she came out empty handed. She was halfway through the hallway leading to the kitchen when she stopped and turned; her heart dropping. The front door was open.

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_Please Review!_


	4. Chapter 4

**I read somewhere that JK Rowling had decided that Lily was pregnant when she and James were killed. What would happen if Lily lived and was able to raise Harry? What would have changed? and what would have changed if Harry had had a younger sister thrown into everything?**

**Thank you to those who reviewed! While I write for fun, I love getting reviews. I'm glad that people are enjoying this story, I've been having fun writing it.**

**Also, I'm moving on Wednesday, while I hope this won't keep me from posting next Monday, I also don't know how long it'll take for me to get internet, so I may not be able to post next week.**

**Here's chapter 4, sorry for the shortness, the next chapter will be longer.**

**Enjoy!**

"Sweet Mother of Merlin." Remus muttered. _There are still Death Eaters out there _he thought.

Lily didn't even think twice, she raced out of the apartment, looking around for Harry, her head whipping around as she tried to find her son.

"I'll ask the neighbors," Remus said. He grabbed a picture of Harry from his pocket, it wasn't the best picture in the world, but it was the only one he had.

He went next door and knocked, no one was home, the people in apartment 15A refused to come to the door and it was finally, at apartment 19C he struck gold. "Excuse me ma'am," he said, when a woman answered the door. "I'm looking for a little boy, you wouldn't happen to have seen him would you?" he asked he showed her the picture of Harry.

"My daughter found him; she wasn't sure which flat he belonged to so she brought him inside and was trying to contact the landlord," the woman said. She opened the door and motioned for Remus to come inside.

"Weemy!" Harry cried. He got up and ran towards Remus "Weemy! Weemy!" Remus picked up the little boy and gave him a hug.

"Harry!" he cried. Then he separated the two of them "Do you have any idea of how worried I've been?" he asked, then he sighed and gave Harry another hug. "You probably don't even know what's wrong," he said, still hugging Harry.

"Remus!" Lily's voice screamed from the hallway "Remus! HELP!" Remus nearly shoved Harry into the woman's arms and told her to keep an eye on him as he ran out into the hallway. Lucius Malfoy was trying to keep Lily from making any noise. He was obviously having a hard time of it as Lily kept screaming and fighting with all her might. Remus pulled his wand out and fired a stunning hex at Lucius; it narrowly missed Lucius and nearly hit Lily.

Remus cursed to himself. "I'll have to be more careful," he muttered, not only did he have to worry about not hitting Lily; he wasn't sure how stunning a pregnant woman would affect the baby.

Remus kept his wand out as he ran towards Lucius and sent more than one stunning spell in his direction. Remus dogged a particularly nasty spell that Lucius sent his way and turned to fire as many spells at Lucius as he could manage without affecting Lily.

Finally, he flung a good spell at Lucius. It hit him in the head, the only part of his body that wasn't covered by Lily. _Thank heaven's she's so short_, Remus thought to himself as he made his way over to the fallen Death Eater.

Lily was moving before he got there and was nearly standing when Remus arrived at the body.

"Good aim," she complimented, as if all Remus had done was make a goal in Quidditch.

"Thanks, it's all thanks to your royal shortness," Remus said sardonically.

Lily grinned and pulled out her own wand "Think we should curse him a few time's? He'd be loads better looking," Lily said "Narssica would probably send me a thank you card."

Remus gave her a 'You've gotta be kidding' look before she sighed and said. "We'd better get a hold of Dumbledore; he'll know what to do."

Remus nodded "Yeah we should," he said, making his way back to the apartment where Harry was.

Nearly 2 days later Remus finished helping Lily move into a different flat. It was a magical flat, protected by the Fidelius charm and Minerva McGonagall was the secret keeper.

When Lucius Malfoy was sentenced to three months in Azkaban for attempted kidnapping, Lily couldn't help but feel relieved. She had been worrying about the new baby on the way (She felt it was a girl) and Harry for so long that it felt rather liberating to realize one of the many threats to Harry was safely behind bars, for the next three months anyway.

_Please Review!_


	5. Chapter 5

**I read somewhere that JK Rowling had decided that Lily was pregnant when she and James were killed. What would happen if Lily lived and was able to raise Harry? What would have changed? and what would have changed if Harry had had a younger sister thrown into everything?**

**Thank you to those who reviewed! While I write for fun, I love getting reviews. I'm glad that people are enjoying this story, I've been having fun writing it.**

**Also, I'm moving on Wednesday, while I hope this won't keep me from posting next Monday, I also don't know how long it'll take for me to get internet, so I may not be able to post next week.**

**Here's chapter 5, sorry for the shortness, the next chapter will be longer.**

**Enjoy!**

**_Chapter: 5  
_**  
Lily paused as she felt another contraction. "Oh crap, that really hurt," she muttered, holding her back.

"Mummy!" Harry said, he would turn two in a little over a month and was beginning to talk.

Lily glanced at the clock and started timing the contraction. "Yes baby?" she asked, going over to her son. She smiled at him and sat down next to him on the couch.

"I drawed!" he said he held up a scribbling and handed it to her.

"Oooooooo" Lily said, she took the picture and made appropriate ooing and awing noises over it. "It's wonderful Harry!" she said, then winced as another contraction hit. Harry noticed her pained face.

"Mummy hurt?" he asked, climbing onto her lap, not the best idea in Lily's mind. She picked him up and set him back down in the couch where he'd been sitting. "The baby is kicking me," she said.

"Not nice." Harry said, kissing Lily's tummy "Be nice baby," he ordered looking at the bump in Lily's tummy where the baby was.

Lily smiled and kissed Harry. "I'm going to go potty, do you need to go?" she asked.

"No." Harry said as he got out another crayon "I draw."

"Okay, draw me a pretty picture." Lily said, getting up, she went to the bathroom and while she was cleaning up, she had another contraction. A really painful one and she suddenly felt wave of liquid escaping.

"Crap." Lily muttered, letting loose a few of James' old favorite curses, she quickly cleaned up as best she could and picked up her phone and dialed the Tonks' number, "Hi Andromeda." She said when Mrs. Tonks picked up. "My water just broke; I need someone to watch Harry while I go to St. Mungo's," she said.

"I'll apparate to your house with Dora and Ted; they'll be able to entertain Harry while I make sure the house is ready for the baby." Andromeda said.

Lily and Harry had been under the Fidelius Charm until she'd been six and a half months along. After that, Dumbledore had lifted the charm and Harry and Lily had been living in Diagon Alley. Dumbledore had also been nice enough to get in touch with the Tonks family and ask them to look after Lily and Harry.

Andromeda and Ted had kept their promise to Dumbledore and had been wonderful confidants and helpers through the rest of the pregnancy. Lily didn't know how she would have been able to get through the rest of the pregnancy without Andromeda and Ted's help. Eight-year-old Dora was worth her weight in gold because she was so good with Harry.

"Thank you," Lily said. She hung up the phone and went into the living room where Harry was hard at work with another picture. "Guess who's coming over?" she asked, forcing herself sound excited. "Dora, Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted are coming over!" she said.

Harry grinned and showed her another picture. "Pretty picture of you," he said smiling.

It was nearly five minutes later that Andromeda, Dora and Ted apperated into the living room; Harry saw Dora and abandoned his crayons as he ran over to her. "Piggy! Piggy!" he demanded, jumping up and down.

Dora knelt down to Harry's eye level and changed her nose to a pig snout. Harry started giggling like a hyena. "Horsie!" he squealed a brand new demand, Lily almost started laughing but another contraction hit just then.

Dora looked up from her metamorphing and said to Lily "That's why I'm never going to marry and have children. I hate pain; I'd never live through labor." Then she started to change her hair to rainbow colors.

"I'll be taking you to the hospital." Andromeda decided she took Lily by the hand. "We'll be taking the long way, it may be the longest way to the hospital, but it's the safest, we can't have you taking the Knight Bus for obvious reasons. Apperating is out of the question, you might splinch the baby right off." Andromeda said, then after seeing Lily's petrified face she quickly added "I don't think it's ever been done before, but better safe than sorry."

It was nearly twenty minutes later that Lily was admitted to the hospital and put in a labor room. Once Andromeda was certain that Lily was in good hands she apperated back to the Potter house and got a hold of Remus; he quickly apperated over to the hospital to help her through the labor.

Finally, eight hours later at 6:34 in the evening, on June 30th 1982, Lily gave birth to a healthy baby girl. A healer bustled around the room, making sure that everything was taken care of, the last thing she did was set a small packet of papers on the bedside table, there are for her birth certificate, I know her dad died in October, and there's more paperwork to fill out if the father died, so it's included here, behind the form for her name." The healer said. "And don't worry Mrs. Potter, I won't tell any reporters you're here."

Thank you." Lily said, she tucked the little girl in one arm and leaned back on the bed, when the healer finally left she spoke again. "Remus, could you do the writing for the birth certificate? I'll sign."

"Of course," Remus quickly filled out as much as he could and then looked to Lily, "it's asking for your maiden name." he told her.

"My full name is Lillian Jane Potter, nee Evans." Remus nodded and wrote it down, then filled in James' name in the father side _Jameson Robert Potter_.

"And the baby's name?" he asked.

"Air-EE-ahd-nay" Lily pronounced it slowly before spelling it. "A-r-i-a-d-n-e." Lily said, then spelled it out for him. Remus carefully wrote the baby's name into the slot provided.

"Her middle name?"

"Madeleine." Lily said, "It's spelled the French way, "M-a-d-e-l-e-i-n-e."

"Potter." Remus muttered to himself as he wrote down the last name, then he sat back in his chair. "Air-EE-ahd-nay." he carefully pronounced the name, glancing at Lily to make sure it was correct. She didn't object to his pronunciation so he continued with the name. "Madeleine Potter."

"When I was pregnant with Harry, we were only able to agree on one name for a girl, just a first name, it was Madeleine. "After the war, right around the time I found out I was pregnant, Dumbledore allowed us to stay at his place for a while, so we'd be out of the public eye while everything died down, one of the books he's got is titled Ariadne."

Remus smiled and scrawled something on a spare bit of parchment, "I have a feeling that Andromeda is up still, waiting for news, I'll send her a note, would you like me to include her name, or do you want to tell them yourself?"

"You can tell them." Lily said, she shifted so she could put baby Adi into the crib by her hospital bed. "I'm going to try and sleep right now." She said.

Remus nodded and quietly wrote the letter.

_The baby is here! It's a girl; she's 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 19 inches long. Her name is Ariadne Madeleine and her hair is so black it's almost purple. She and Lily are doing well, but they are both very tired so they are going to rest tonight to be ready for visit's tomorrow, visiting hours start at 8:30, The hospital will have a list of people who have permission to visit. Your names will all be on the list. I'll see you tomorrow, Remus._

And then at the bottom, he quickly drew an animal, a sheep and wrote- _Dora, see if you can change into that by the time you visit baby Adi, okay?_ Sirius had done the same thing, challenged her to use her metamorphing skills for more then just hair and skin color.

After sending the letter off with one of the St. Mungo's owls, he went downstairs to the registration desk and added the Tonks' and Harry to the list of approved visitors, and for good measure added some of Lily's friends, Augusta Longbottom, who had gotten custody of Frank and Alice's son. Neville and Harry played well together and it looked like they would be friends. _Although_, Remus decided, _Harry and Neville aren't even two yet, who knows what the years will bring._

When he got back up to Lily's recovery room, he lay on the sofa and fell asleep. He woke to hear a little girl's voice, "Mr. Remus, wake up." The voice had a sing song quality to it and when he opened his eyes he was face to face with a human- sheep hybrid of some kind.

He gave a shout and fell off the couch in surprise, Dora was laughing and she changed back into her usual self. "That's the best I could do with only a couple of hours practice Mr. Remus." Then she changed back into her part-human part sheep face. Remus looked at her as she changed again, this time to match Harry's looks.

_Harry was up on Lily's bed now, snuggling with her and holding the baby with a little help. "This is your sister Ariadne." She pulled the blanket away from the little girl's now sleeping face._

"Her face red." Harry said in a matter of fact voice, he leaned down and gently kissed Ariadne's forehead. "Pretty sister." He whispered.

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	6. Chapter 6

**I read somewhere that JK Rowling had decided that Lily was pregnant when she and James were killed. What would happen if Lily lived and was able to raise Harry? What would have changed? and what would have changed if Harry had had a younger sister thrown into everything?**

**Thank you to those who reviewed! While I write for fun, I love getting reviews. I'm glad that people are enjoying this story, I've been having fun writing it.**

**Here's chapter 6, Enjoy!**

**_Chapter: 6  
_**  
"Ariadne Madeleine Potter, you get back here!" Lily ordered her seven year old.

"Why Mummy?" Ariadne asked, she stopped in her tracks and looked at her mother. "If I'm in trouble then I shouldn't be going to you, you'll just ground me." Ariadne retorted with all the tartness of a seven-year-old.

"And if you keep running you'll be in even more trouble," Lily explained patiently.

Ariadne thought for a moment, and then started walking towards Lily. She was walking very slowly, but she finally, reached her mother. Her big hazel eyes were filled with tears as she nervously tucked a strand of her auburn hair behind one ear.

"You know you're not allowed to play with my wand," Lily started "So how come I caught you touching it?"

"I want to do magic with a wand!" Ariadne pouted, a tear falling down her cheek.

"When you get a letter to go to Hogwarts we'll go to Diagon Alley, and you can get a wand," Lily said. "But until then you'll just have to wait. I know it's not fair, but that's the way it is," Lily said firmly. "Now, since I've told you before not to play with my wand and you did it anyway, I'm going to have to punish you."

Ariadne's tears spilled over and she shook her head quickly "No Mummy! Please no." she said.

"No Quidditch for a week."

"No Mummy!" Ariadne started wailing. "Please take it back Mummy." She cried.

"What's going on?" a voice asked from the doorway, it was Remus, and Ariadne ran to him sobbing.

"Mummy said no Quidditch for a week." Ariadne sobbed.

"I've told her not to play with my wand and she still insisted on playing with it." Lily said "She knows that if she disobeys me that there will be a punishment."

"How about you and I go get some ice cream?" Remus asked Ariadne. "We can eat some of the best ice cream in the world and you can tell me all about it."

"Remus you're terrible!" Lily said, "Every time she gets into trouble you take her out for ice cream, not only are you rotting her teeth, you're teaching her that it's okay to get into trouble because Uncle Moony will take you out for ice-cream," Lily snapped.

"I just want to make her feel better." Remus said.

"Well, she's being punished! She blatantly disobeyed one of the few rules that are non-negotiable in this house," Lily said. "And I'm not going to let her go out for ice cream when she's just been punished, it's like telling her that it's okay for her to break the rules."

Remus nodded "You're right Lily" he said, he knelt down to Ariadne's eye level. "We'll have to save our ice cream trip until later, okay Adi?" he asked.

Ariadne nodded. "Okay Uncle Remus." She turned, and after giving her mother a dark glare went into the other room where Harry was reading.

"When are you going over to the Shack?" Lily asked in a low voice.

"I'll be leaving here about 3:00, I want to make sure I get there with plenty of sunlight left, I don't want to accidentally leave too late and not get to the shack in time. The moon is supposed to rise early tonight." Remus replied.

"I wish I could go with you, but I don't have a babysitter for Harry and Ariadne, Ted and Andromeda can't take them. Dora's getting home from Hogwarts later today." Lily said.

Remus nodded "Okay" he said. He had gotten used to Lily being able to spend his transformations with him, but he knew that her children came first.

"I need to go to Hogsmead to get a few things; we could stay there until you go to the shack," Lily suggested. "Maybe we could apparate there together, you take Harry and I'll take Ariadne."

Remus nodded "Sounds like a plan." He said.

Lily stuck her head into the living room "I'm going to Hogsmead, and I'm taking you two." She said "Get ready to side-along-apparate."

Harry groaned she knew the nine-year-old boy hated to side-along but it was the only way they could get to Hogsmead right now, it was noon, meaning that the floo network would be crowded with witches and wizards going to Hogsmead restaurants and shops for lunch.

"Harry, you're going with Uncle Remus." she told her son. Somehow going with Uncle Remus made side-along Apparition somewhat bearable for the boy.

Harry nodded. "Okay." He said.

"How come I don't get to go with Uncle Moony?" Ariadne asked fiercely, glaring at her brother as if daring him to apparate with her godfather.

"Because Harry doesn't apparate well with me." Lily said. _And because I want to make sure Remus doesn't apparate into the ice cream shop and buy you a cone_. Lily didn't speak the last thoughts out loud; but by the look Remus gave her she could tell he knew at least some of what she had been thinking.

"Here Harry, why don't we go first and we can get some shopping done, I know you need to get a few things." Remus said. Harry looked confused for a second before he remembered that Ariadne's birthday was in a week.

"I want to buy some Quidditch stuff." Harry lied when Ariadne asked him what he wanted to buy in Hogsmead.

"I know you're lying." Ariadne snapped at her brother, the two children could always tell when the other one was lying to them, even about small stuff. They were closer than Lily had ever seen any two siblings. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they were both a bit ostracized from the public, Lily had no idea what it was; but whatever happened to make them close had made the bond strong, very strong.

Once when Ariadne was five, she was being watched by Remus while Lily had taken Harry shopping for groceries and a birthday present for Ariadne. All of a sudden, partway through the trip, Harry stopped right in the middle of the aisle of the store they were in and told Lily "Ariadne's hurt." Lily had been worried until Harry had told her that 'It wasn't a big cut, but Ariadne sure was scared.'

Twenty minutes later, when Lily and Harry had flooed home with the groceries and the present, they found Ariadne lying on the couch with a band aid on her knee, apparently she'd fallen and scrapped it.

"Fine I am lying, but I don't want you to know what I'm going to be buying." Harry snapped back, he'd forgotten that he couldn't lie to Ariadne.

Ariadne looked disappointed but went to go get hers and Harry's coats when her mother asked her to.

"Here," Lily said, she pulled out her purse and took some Galleons out; "For Ariadne's present." She said.

Harry nodded "I'll buy her some stuff from Honeydukes." He said.

Lily nodded "Okay" she replied, "Just don't get too many sweets."

Harry grinned "I would never get too many sweets Mum, who do you think I am?" he teased, putting the coins in his pocket. Both Remus and Lily laughed, knowing Harry would eat sweets all day long if he was allowed to.

"Here's my coat and here's Harry's" Ariadne said, she handed Lily both coats and Lily used her wand to shrink them before putting them in her purse.

"Why are we taking our coats Mum?" Harry asked "It's the middle of summer."

"I was thinking we'd have dinner in Hogsmead and since we don't have any reservations I don't know how long we'll have to wait for a table, I'd rather have your coats with me just in case it gets chilly than listen to you two complain that you're freezing cold." Lily replied.

"Let's go Harry." Remus said, he offered his arm to the nine-year old and Harry took it, making a face just before Remus apperated away.

Ariadne took Lily's arm and they too apperated to Hogsmead.

Four hours later, Remus had gone to the shrieking shack and Lily, Harry and Ariadne were looking through the shops in Hogsmead.

It was as they were leaving Honeydukes (Lily was nearly dragging Harry out) when several loud bangs were heard from the direction of the small branch of Gringotts around the corner.

Lily pushed Harry and Ariadne back into the shop "Keep your sister in there." She ordered Harry, right before several more loud bangs filled the air, there were people screaming and there were a crowd of people running from the direction of the small bank. Lily took off running towards the crowd of people, as did several other wizards.

"Ariadne lets get back here." Harry said, guiding her to the back of the store, they went behind the counter and knelt as more bangs were heard and more screams rent the air.

"Get in there." Harry ordered his sister, he pointed to the door leading down into what Ariadne guessed was the cellar of Honeydukes. She obediently went down and as she heard Harry say "Get down as far as you can Ariadne."

Ariadne whispered "Okay" and quickly went down the stairs.

Ariadne huddled at the bottom of the stairs as she listened to the muffled bangs and screams. Just then there was an extra loud thump at the top of the stairs, Ariadne jumped up, her heart pounding wildly as she looked up. She started to head up the stairs but then stopped as she could hear Harry's voice in her head "Get down as far as you can!" she looked around for a place to hide, there was another trap door around the corner from the stairs and she quickly went over to it. Just as she was getting to it, a light filled the room from the top of the stairs and she quickly opened the trap door she was standing next to and dove down into the darkness.

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	7. Chapter 7

**_Here's chapter 7, thank you to those who reviewed the first chapters, I love getting reveiws. Some of you had questions about why Lily didn't seem to try too hard to get Sirius out of prison, I didn't go into much detail early on in the story because it's all explained in greater detail in other chapters. JK Rowling didn't explain everything in one chapter, why should I?_**

**_Chapter 7:_**

After making sure that Ariadne was safe, Harry darted to the front door of the shop, he was curious to see what was going on.

"Harry, get back inside." Uncle Ted and Aunt Andromeda suddenly led Dora and Fantasia inside and Uncle Ted directed his oldest daughter "stay with Harry, Ariadne and Fantasia."

Fifteen year old Dora nodded "Yeah Dad, sure."

"But Daddy…" 7 year old Fantasia started to complain.

"Fantasia Tonks." Ted said in the tone that always got obeyed.

"Yes Daddy." And with that, Ted and Andromeda left the shop, heading towards the bangs and shrieks.

"Where's Ariadne?" Fantasia asked Harry.

"I told her to go into the cellar, so she wouldn't be hurt by all the people who were coming into the shop." Another family came in, making Harry, and the Tonks girls move out of the way.

"Let's go get her, I don't know if the shop owner would like having a child in his cellar." Dora said. They went around the counter and Harry began to open the trap door when a man came behind the counter. "Get out of there." He growled.

"But…" Harry started.

"There's nothing down there, stay up here in the shop." His voice was deep.

"But sir, my cousin might be down there, we can't find her." Dora spoke again.

"Why would your cousin go into the cellar?" The man asked.

"I told her to." Harry admitted, "I was afraid she'd get hurt by all the people coming in."

Ted Tonks came back into the shop them followed by Lily.

"Where's Ariadne?" Lily noticed immediately that her daughter wasn't standing next to the Tonks girls.

Harry quickly told his mother where Ariadne had gone and finished with "this man wasn't letting us go down to the cellar though."

"There shouldn't be a child down there." the man said, but he allowed Lily to go downstairs to look for Ariadne.

She came back up a few moments later saying "Harry, are you sure you sent her into the cellar?"

"Yeah, I took her behind the counter and saw the trap door, there were a lot more people coming in and I wanted to keep her safe, like Uncle Sev is always telling me to do." Harry said.

Lily gave her son a long look before saying "The only reason I ask is that she's not there."

"What?" Ted, Andromeda and Harry spoke as one.

"She's not in the cellar." Lily said again. Just then, a silver doe appeared in front of them, it spoke in a deep voice. "Ariadne is at Hogwarts with me." It spoke in Severus' deep voice.

"How in the world, did she manage to get to Hogwarts?" Lily asked herself. "Let's go get your sister." She spoke to Harry.

"I want to see Ariadne." Fantasia spoke up, looking at her parents, "Please can we go?"

"Since Dora just got home, it's her decision." Andromeda said.

"I want to make sure that Ariadne is all right." Dora said, the decision made, the entire group made their way to the gates of Hogwarts, they went up the long drive and were soon in the castle. Harry and Fantasia were amazed to see the castle, they'd heard so much about it from their parents and Dora.

"Mistress Evans!" A voice made Lily turn.

"Hello Peaches," she greeted the house elf.

"Master Snapes has Mistress Ariadne!" The house elf said.

Lily nodded and said "Thank you for telling me Peaches, where is she?"

"The kitchen, Mistress Ariadne wanted to have a biscuit." Peaches told them.

Peaches lead them to the kitchens and they found Ariadne was sitting with Severus who was showing her a book as they munched on treats; she was leaning against him and reading from the book slowly.

"And the bunny said…." She paused and glanced up as she heard her mother come in. "Hi Mummy!" She greeted happily.

"Oh thank Merlin you're safe." Lily said, "I was worried."

"Harry told me to get down into the cellar, there was a trap door, I went into it, and came to Hogwarts!" Ariadne was less than traumatized by the experience.

"I didn't know where you were, I was worried." Lily said, she knelt in front of her daughter and quickly checked her daughter over, there was nothing that caused her any worry and she turned to Severus. "Thank you Severus, were you the one that found her?"

"Uncle Sev found me." Ariadne answered instead and Lily turned a raised eyebrow on her daughter. "Ariadne, I'm glad that you're all right but I'm having an adult conversation." Her tone was kind but firm. Ariadne nodded meekly and then got up and went to talk to Harry.

"I was the one who found her." Severus said, he glanced at Ariadne and said "I think you can imagine my confusion when I saw her."

Lily nodded ruefully "Yes, I can." She admitted. "I'm glad though that you found her."

"Mummy?" Ariadne asked, "Can Uncle Sev come over for my birthday dinner?"

"Remus will be there." Lily told him.

Severus made a face and said "I may have things to do that day."

"You don't even know what day my birthday dinner is on." Ariadne pouted and looked up at her 2nd godfather. "Please Uncle Sev?"

"I'll come and take you and Harry out to dinner, just the three of us." Severus promised, Lily had made both Severus and Remus Godfather and both men spent a fair amount of time with Ariadne.

"That sounds like fun, where will you take us?" Ariadne asked. Severus leaned forward and whispered something in her ear, she grinned and threw her arms around Severus' neck. "Oh thank you!" She said happily.

"You're welcome." Severus patted her on the back as Dora looked on in open mouth shock, she'd never seen her Potions professor act like this before with anyone.

"I thought you'd said that he was mean." Fantasia whispered to Dora loudly. Although she was trying to whisper her voice carried.

"I act differently around my God-daughter." Severus said, he turned to Dora. "If anyone hears about this," he let the threat hang and Dora nodded eyes wide.

"Yes sir." She replied.

"Wow, he really is mean." Fantasia commented. "I hope I'm not in his house when I'm in Hogwarts."

"We need to get going," Lily turned to her children.

"Can we have them over for dinner?" Dora turned to her parents. "I know its last minute, but I've missed the Potters too."

"As long as the Potters are okay with coming over," Andromeda said, Ariadne grinned, she hadn't spent much time with Fantasia lately and she'd missed her friend.

"I need to talk with Severus for a few moments," Lily said, "but Harry and Ariadne can go ahead of me."

After the Tonks' left through the floo with Harry and Ariadne, Lily turned to Severus. "Sev, I'm desperate." She said, worry lines appeared on her forehead and Severus become concerned.

"What is it Lily?"

"I still haven't been able to get Sirius' case to trial." She began, Severus took a step back from her, suddenly frowning.

"I know you don't like him Sev," Lily started talking quickly, "but he's innocent of the charges brought against him." Her tone got desperate. "I've been trying since before Ariadne's _birth_ to get this to trial. I have all the evidence ready, I just need to get it into a court room." Lily took in a breath.

"Every time I've requested this be brought to trial, Fudge finds something to nitpick about that I haven't done correctly, to have it taken off the docket." Lily shook her head. "Fudge does not want this to go to trial for some reason. He's being completely stupid about it. I think it has something to do with the fact that Fudge's sister used to date Sirius." Lily insisted, she looked up at him, eyes wide. Severus looked at Lily, and for a moment he lost himself in her eyes. For a moment, he would have done anything for her, but then he remembered who he would be helping. Black.

"Please Sev?" Lily touched his arm. "Please?" He looked down sharply, and stared at her hand on his arm for a long moment.

Severus stared at her for a moment, "On a couple of conditions." He said, "I'll be the one to plan and execute how we carry this out."

"Done." Lily said, Severus didn't make a big deal about it, but he was smarter then he let on. Chances are, he knew of a different way to get Sirius' case in court.

"Second, I'll need your help." He said.

"With?"

"Brewing a couple of potions," Severus pulled out a parchment and a quill, he scribbled down a few ingredients and then a book name, "The potion recipe for the one you can brew first is on page 45."

Lily nodded, "When do you need this?"

"Late October, then on Halloween, I'll need you to help me with actually brewing another potion; it's highly complicated and takes 2 cauldrons to brew." He scribbled another few notes on the parchment, "you'll need that book as well, and the potion directions are on page 103."

Lily stared at him for a moment, then up at Severus. "When on Halloween do I need to be helping you?"

"All day," Severus said, "This potion can only be brewed during the day of a blue moon; Halloween is the soonest blue moon."

"Sev…" Lily took the parchment, "I-Halloween is the day we go and visit James. It's tradition." Severus knew he was asking a lot of Lily, but James had died. He didn't want to push her but it was time to move on, he'd died nearly eight years before. Lily took in a breath, the decision clearly difficult to make. Finally she looked up and, for the first time in Severus' memory put him before her husband.

"Where will we brewing it?"

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	8. Chapter 8

**_Here's chapter 8, thank you to those who reviewed before, I love getting reviews. Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I was away from internet all day._**

**_Chapter 8:_**

Five months later, on Halloween, Lily sent Harry and Ariadne over to the Tonks' house for the day, the two families were good friends and Andromeda was more like an Aunt to Harry and Ariadne then family friend.

After they got to the Tonks' house, Harry and Ariadne disappeared upstairs with Fantasia. They were talking about what houses they would be sorted into when they went to Hogwarts. "I'm like my Mum, I'll probably be sorted into Slytherin." Fantasia said, "I'm pretty sure my birth parents are from Slytherin too." Fantasia said, unconsciously she rubbed her left forearm.

Harry and Ariadne were surprised for a second, they knew that Andromeda and Ted had adopted Fantasia, she'd been orphaned in the war and they had taken her in when she was a few months old. Her adoption however, didn't usually come up in conversation.

"I think I'll be in Gryffindor." Harry said, "Don't worry Asia." He used the girl's nickname. "I'll still talk to you even if you're in Slytherin."

"And I'll still talk to you, even if you are in Gryffindor." Asia retorted, but both children were smiling, although Asia was Ariadne's age, she and Harry got along quite well. Harry, Ariadne and Fantasia got out their packs of Exploding Snap and started playing.

* * *

Lily flooed directly into Severus' quarters in Hogwarts. Although it was a school day, Severus had brought in a substitute it so he didn't have classes that day. As she looked around, she could see several potions brewing, she peeked into the cauldrons and smiled, she'd missed brewing with Sev.

"What potions are you brewing?" Lily asked, "and why did I brew a potion that gives someone pain?"

"I've purposely not told you what my idea is."

"How much will I protest when I hear the plan?" Lily asked, starting to cut some rat tails that had been left out by a cauldron with second set of brewing utensils.

"Hopefully not much." Severus said, "My plan is to go to Azkaban later today, with you and Minerva, to visit with Black. Unless I'm incorrect, Fudge hasn't restricted your visiting him?"

"No, that's one thing he doesn't have an opinion on." Lily set the rat tails aside, grabbed a handful of pods and started cutting them.

"You get more juice if you squish them." Severus told her.

"I forgot you know all sorts of tricks." Lily said, beginning to squish them, "You should write a book about all the tips you've figured out. I bet it would sell."

They worked in silence for a moment, each lost in their own potion. "So we're going to Azkaban…." Lily trailed off as she waited for Severus to finish the plan.

"While there, we will smuggle Black some potions." Severus said, he pointed to a list he'd written on a chalk board he had in his personal quarters. The list included several potions, including the ones that the two of them were working on. There was also a note that Black had to take them in a certain order; Lily noticed that the potion she'd brewed at home was at the top of the list. "I brewed the pain potion," Lily murmured, giving the list a long look, trying to figure out from the list what Sev's plan was.

"So we make it so he's in pain, and has…." She trailed off as she realized what the second potion on the list was. "Is poisoned?"

"You're brewing the antidote." Severus said, "this is a slow acting poison and…."

"Sev, I'm not poisoning Sirius."

"How badly do you want him free?"

Lily sighed, and gave him a look. "This is the reason you didn't tell me what your plan was until today, wasn't it?"

"No, it gets worse."

Lily groaned but continued to brew the potion as Severus kept talking.

"We give him the potions and he gets sick, he needs to be taken to St. Mungo's, but since St. Mungo's life flight can't land on Azkaban, we have to take him to the nearest shore." Severus said, "While we are in the boat going from Azkaban to the mainland, we give him the antidote and the pain away potion and then Minerva transfigures him into something that we can fit into our pockets. Something innocuous, like a galleon or maybe something of Harry or Ariadne's that you'd have in your pocket."

"We get to the mainland, we say he escaped. We're questioned and it's shown that he took the poison, we can't be accused of helping him escape if he'd been poisoned, because as much as you want him free, you'd never keep medical treatment from him. We are released from Ministry custody and you walk out with Black in your pocket."

"Wow Sev, that's really cunning." Newfound respect showed in her eyes for Sev.

"Well I wasn't sorted into Slytherin because I like the color green." Severus retorted mildly.

* * *

Severus, Minerva and Lily arrived on the shore overlooking Azkaban with a pop, having apperated there. Lily took in a quiet breath and double checked that the potions were in her pocket, earlier Minerva had transfigured them to look like Galleons so they could be snuck into the prison.

Lily was quiet as they boarded the boat that would take them to Azkaban. "Lily?" Severus touched her arm as she got into the boat. Lily looked up at her friend and smiled thinly. "If things go wrong…." She spoke quietly.

"They won't." Severus said, sounding more confident then he felt.

The boat set off without any prompting from any one in the boat and they were soon disembarking and they climbed the long stairwell to the front gate of Azkaban. Lily kept her wand in hand as they drew closer, even from the boat she'd been able to feel the Dementors chill.

They got to the front gate and a guard spoke before they could. "Names and inmate you're seeing?"

"Lily Potter, Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall." Lily said, "We're here to see Sirius Black."

The guard nodded and said that they'd need to relinquish their wands before they would be let into the prison. All three of them put their wands in the box provided and Lily smiled thinly as she recognized Severus' wand as the one he'd used in School.

They stepped through the barriers and were soon escorted to the detainment area to visit with Sirius. The guards seemed to take a long time bringing Sirius back and Lily fidgeted nervously, this was so dangerous, what they were doing, if things went badly, she didn't know what would happen to Harry and Ariadne.

She glanced around the now familiar visiting room, there were several tables and chairs and one wall was covered by a Muggle 2 way mirror, like they had in Muggle Police stations, that way an inmate and his or her family could visit in relative privacy, but the guards would still be able to see what was going on in the room.

Finally though, the door re-opened and Sirius walked in, he looked dirty and like he hadn't had a good meal in a while. Lily smiled as she saw him, she and Sirius may not have been best friends but she considered him a good friend. Lily saw his face change expression slightly as noticed the extra two visitors but he didn't say anything while the guards sat him in the chair on the opposite side of the table. Once the door closed, Lily, Minerva and Severus set to work. Lily quickly pulled the Galleons out of her pocket and set them on the table. Minerva began untransfiguring them and each Galleon became a potion bottle. "We have a minute until the guard comes through the door and can see what we're doing through the two way mirror." Lily said, "Just a moment Sirius."

Lily went to the two way mirror and began casting a charm that would keep the guards from seeing exactly what they were doing in the detainment room. The charm was good for about 30 minutes, at which time Sirius would be reacting to the potions he would be given.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked once Severus was back in his seat, Minerva had untransfigured the Galleons and Severus quickly put the potions in the order that they needed to be taken.

"Long story Sirius, but I'm sick of Fudge nitpicking about stupid details every time I try to get your case into court, I've tried nearly 30 times to get this into court, and he's blocked it 30 times. Now, we're busting you out, take this potion first." Sirius downed the first potion and made a face. "Sorry about the taste, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to make it taste good and still do what it's supposed to do."

"What potions are these?" Sirius asked, downing the second one.

"That one's poison." Lily said, off-handedly. Sirius stared at Lily for a moment. Lily shrugged casually, "we've got the antidote." Sirius didn't move, just continued to give Lily an 'are you kidding me?' look. "Take this one too." She pointed to the third potion.

Sirius looked at it warily, but grasped the potion bottle in his hand. He didn't move it though and Lily raised an eye brow, "You'll have the antidote in a few minutes, you've gotta take the potions in a certain order. It's the only way Sev and I could think of to bust you out, trust us on this."

"Snivellus helped with this?"

Lily threw him a sharp look, "Do you want to be out of Azkaban?"

"Yes," Sirius said, in a tone that clearly indicated that he thought the answer was obvious.

"Then drink." Lily ordered, she pointed to the other bottles.

Reluctantly, Sirius drank the rest of the potions except one. He finished the last potion just as the charm was beginning to wear off. Minerva quickly transfigured the potions bottles back into Galleons and Lily stuffed them into her pocket as Severus put the poison's antidote into his own robe pocket.

Lily could see the potion taking effect and she stood up from the chair she was sitting in, addressing the mirror, she said "I think something's wrong!" Sirius fell to the ground; it looked like he was having a seizure. Terror gripped Lily's heart then, there was no turning back, they had to get Sirius out to give him the antidote.

A guard burst in and knelt by Sirius, the man was still on the ground. The guard looked up and said "We'll have to get him to St. Mungo's."

Things seemed to move fast after that, in a matter of minutes, St. Mungo's and the Auror office had been contacted and they were told that four Auror's would be waiting at the shore as soon as the boat got to shore. Minerva, Lily and Severus were each given their wands back and all four adults were loaded into the boat. They set off and were soon out on the open sea, quickly heading towards shore. Severus then gave Sirius the antidote, and said that it would take a moment for it to work. It did and Lily helped her son's godfather sit up. "We've got to transfigure you now." Lily said quietly, Minerva leveled her wand at her former student and a moment later a plain galleon was sitting where Sirius had been.

"Where's the other Galleon?" Minerva asked, Lily produced the actual galleon she'd brought with her and after a few moments, another version of Sirius appeared. This version was completely still; his skin had a morbid look to it. Lily patted her pocket where she knew the real galleon was, _he's not dead!_ She told herself.

"Now we wait." Severus' voice was quiet, they touched onto the shore and Lily stumbled out. "Something's wrong." She alerted the Aurors. They swarmed the boat as Minerva got out and stood next to Lily. It only took a few minutes for one Auror to step back and say a few words.

"Sirius Black time of death; 7:45 pm."

* * *

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	9. Chapter 9

_**Here's chapter 9, I hope you all enjoy it!**_

**_Chapter 9:_**

**_November 1st:_**

Ariadne followed her Aunt Andromeda through Diagon Alley, they were nearly done with Aunt Andromeda's shopping trip, Ariadne had asked to go along and look for a new book at Flourish and Blotts, her Uncle's Severus and Moony had set up a small charge account for her on her birthday and she still hadn't used it all up.

"We've got to finish in the Apothecary and then we'll go to Flourish and Blotts." Andromeda promised.

Ariadne grinned and hurried with her Aunt into the Apothecary. They were soon done and were hurrying into Flourish and Blotts. Ariadne went straight to the children's section and began to look through the new arrivals. She didn't find anything interesting there and began to look around, hoping to find a book. She was so intent on looking at the book titles she didn't even noticed the boy coming towards her until they bumped into each other.

The boy turned to glare at her but didn't say anything. His eyes widened and he stared at her.

"Sorry." Ariadne said, "I should've watched where I was going."

"It's all right." The boy said his voice a bit loud, he seemed to recognize this and his tone of voice came down. "I should have been watching where I was going; I was looking to see if there were any new Justice books out."

"You read those too?" Ariadne asked.

The boy nodded, "yes, I really enjoy them."

"My favorite is the 4th book." Ariadne said, "Which one do you like best?"

"The 2nd." The boy responded, "I heard the series is going to end after book number 8 comes out."

"What?" Ariadne asked "they can't end! This is such a good series!"

"I know, right?" The boy looked to Ariadne "What's your name?"

"Ariadne, what's yours?"

"My name is Draco." The boy said. They started to walk as they both started to look for the same book. They continued to talk and by the time they had found the Justice books they were chattering away like they'd been friends for years. They both picked up a copy of the newest book, Ariadne flipped through it quickly, she'd been waiting for this book for months and it was finally out!

"Ariadne, it's time to go." Aunt Andromeda spoke from where she was in line at the register.

"I gotta go." Ariadne and Draco said good bye and they parted.

* * *

_**November 2nd:**_

Lily apperated to Minerva McGonagall's summer home with a pop. She, Severus and Minerva had finally been let out of Ministry custody. After Sirius had been pronounced dead the Aurors had taken the tree of them into custody to question them about what had happened that night. They had been questioned for nearly 2 days before Dumbledore had finally intervened and the three of them had been released from the Ministry custody.

"Are you sure he's safe transfigured?" Lily asked as they walked up the short little walk to her front door.

"Yes, with Human transfiguration, it's like they are frozen in time, he won't get hungry or starve."

The group of three entered Minerva's house and Lily pulled the sack of galleons out of her robe pocket. A few moments later, Sirius was untransfigured and he was staring at them, a mixture of emotions on his face. "I'm grateful to be out of Azkaban, but I would like to know exactly what happened."

Lily nodded, Sirius deserved to know what they'd gone through to get him out.

"It's a long story." Lily said, she turned to Minerva and Severus. "I know you've got classes tomorrow, I'll be happy to stay and tell him if you have to go."

"I don't have classes until after lunch; I'll be able to stay." Minerva said, she guided everyone to the kitchen where she motioned to the table, Lily Sirius and Severus sat down. Sirius stared between Lily and Severus. Lily watched as Minerva tapped her wand against the teakettle and then joined the rest of the group at the table.

"So I had to take the potions to get out of Azkaban, but what exactly happened?"

Lily took in a breath. "I guess I should start at the beginning." She said. "We all know that you were sent to Azkaban without a trial." Sirius nodded quietly but didn't say anything as Lily kept talking. "Ever since you were chucked into Azkaban I've been trying to get your case to trial, but Fudge has managed to get it off the docket every single time I tried to get it into court. It was tiny, stupid nit-picky things too. It was clear to me that he just didn't want your case being brought to trial."

"I finally got sick of you being in Azkaban and the three of us started scheming to get you out."

"What exactly was the plan?"

"We brewed the potions; they were all to make you sick enough that you'd have to be taken to St. Mungo's."

"But we were going to the shore." Sirius said.

"St. Mungo's Life flight can't land on Azkaban, so we had to take you to the shore to meet them." Lily said.

"What happened after I was transfigured?"

"We transfigured a galleon into your…" Lily paused and used her fingers as she spoke the next word. "Corpse."

"So officially, I'm dead?"

"No." Lily said, "We got to the shore and Aurors declared you dead, but Mad-Eye Moody could see that something was wrong with the magical aura surrounding your fake corpse. So we were taken into ministry custody and interrogated for a day or so." She looked from Minerva to Severus and kept speaking. "I don't know exactly what happened during Severus' and Minerva's interrogations but during mine, at least: My wand was tested to see if I had transfigured Sirius, it came back negative because I wasn't the one who transfigured you. I was then given Veritaserum and Mad-Eye Moody started asking me questions. While I was under Veritaserum, I told Mad-Eye that Peter was the one who was our secret keeper." She sounded pleased as she spoke again. "He's now raising hell as to why your case hasn't been brought into court."

"So I have to hide out until I'm cleared?"

"Yep." Lily said, "I was told my Mad-Eye that he would be contacting me in a couple of days regarding your case."

Sirius nodded quietly. "Thank you Lily, he turned to Minerva. "Professor." He turned to Severus he paused for a moment, trying to come up with something to say. When he spoke his voice was strained. "Snape."

* * *

Lily apperated into the Tonks' back garden with a small pop. She could faintly hear a game of Exploding Snap. _Harry_, she realized. She knocked on the back door and then entered the house, the knock was more of a polite gesture then a necessity really, the Tonks' and Potters were on very friendly terms. Fantasia and Ariadne were best friends and both Potter children adored Dora who baby sat them during the summer.

"Lily." Andromeda greeted warmly, "How did everything go?"

Lily smiled thinly, "Haven't you read today's Prophet?"

"I prefer to get the real story from you" Andromeda said, she set two mugs of tea on the kitchen table and they both sat and began to talk.

"Sev, Minerva and I went to visit Sirius in prison, we were visiting with him and he suddenly fell over and started to have a seizure." Lily recited what she'd told the Ministry. "We were taking him to St. Mungo's when he died while in the boat that takes you from Azkaban to the shore. We had no idea that it wasn't actually Sirius until Mad-Eye Moody took a closer look at the body that we discovered that it wasn't actually Sirius, just one fine piece of transfiguration."

"So he escaped, and no one knew about it until you went to visit?" Andromeda seemed unwilling to believe that version of events.

Lily forced herself to shrug casually, "While I don't particularly like Dementors, I thought they were smart enough to tell the difference between real people and one that was made through Magic." She shrugged again, "Apparently not."

Andromeda gave Lily a look, Lily forced herself to look innocent and she took a sip of tea. "Well if you don't believe me, you mush have some idea of what you think happened."

"From the sounds of the Prophet article, it was you, Snape and McGonagall who busted him out." Andromeda said, slightly raising an eyebrow.

Lily's eyebrows rose. "How would we have done that?" she hedged around the subject.

Andromeda shrugged, "I don't know, but I seem to remember that Severus Snape was incredibly creative when I was prefect. Knowing him, the idea was insane."

Lily's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she realized that Andromeda had guessed that it had been Severus who had come up with the idea of how to bust Sirius out of Azkaban. "Come out and say it Andie," Lily's tone was firm but kind, "What burning question do you have but are much too polite to ask?"

"Did you bust Sirius out of Prison?" Andromeda asked, leaning forward and moving her mug of tea out of the way. Lily pointed her wand at the nearest door and cast a spell to make it so no one outside the doorway could hear what they were saying. Then she silently took out a bag of Galleons from her pocket.

"You don't have to pay me to keep quiet." Andromeda said.

Lily smiled and shook her head. "You'll find that in the Azkaban report, which is available to the public, all I had on me was my wand and this bag full of Galleons."

"Yes?"

"These have been transfigured from….. Other things," Lily said, "these, other things helped us bust Sirius out of Azkaban, and when we were in the boat going to the shore, he was transfigured into a Galleon, for me to carry in my pocket."

"And?"

"He's out and because of his 'death'." Lily used her fingers to make quotes, "There are more people asking why Sirius was put into Azkaban in the first place." Her tone became casual. "I had to take Veriteserum for Fudge to realize that I had no idea where he was. Which is true, when they asked where Sirius was, I didn't know because they confiscated everything I had on me when I entered the Ministry. I had no idea where Sirius was."

Andromeda seemed to be hiding a smile as she spoke again. "And?" she asked one more time.

"And he's at a safe house, that's under the fidelous Charm." Lily said, "Mad-Eye Moody is the Auror who questioned me. He seemed really interested in why Sirius was chucked into Azkaban in the first place, because as he was questioning me, under Veriteserum no less, I said Sirius was innocent, and Peter had been the one to rat us out to Voldemort." Lily smiled, "He's now raising hell with Fudge to try and figure out why he hasn't let Sirius' case go to trial."

"You'll keep me updated?" Andromeda asked as something started boiling over on the stove, she leaped up and got it and Lily stood as well.

"You know I will." Lily took the charm off the kitchen door and called into the house. "Harry! Ariadne! Get your things together, we'll be leaving!"

There was a shout from upstairs and Lily assumed that it was her children agreeing with her. She then turned to Andromeda, "We need to get back to our place."

"Will you be able to come over for Sunday Dinner?" Andromeda asked, the Potters and Tonks' usually were at each other's homes eating dinner several times a month.

"We'll come unless we're preparing for Sirius' case to be brought to trial. I'm also going to add that he be pardoned for escaping since, he was innocent in the first place, why should he have to be punished for escaping?"

It sounded like there was a heard of hippogriffs running down the stairs as Ariadne and Harry raced. They both reached the kitchen at the same time and burst in.

"Mummy!" The nickname surprised Lily; Ariadne used it almost every time she spoke to Lily, but Harry rarely used the term any more. They both hugged Lily, and she hugged them back wondering if her children had somehow managed to grow in the 2 days she'd been gone. "I didn't realize that I'd be gone for so long." Lily apologized to her son and daughter.

"Is it true Uncle Sirius escaped?" Harry asked, "I read something about it in the Prophet."

"He did escape." Lily said, "We can talk more about this when we get home though, are your bags packed?"

"We'll go do that." Harry and Ariadne darted back up the stairs.

"What are you going to tell them?" Andromeda asked, she got another pot out and poured a can of something into the pot and turned the burner on and put a lid onto it.

"Until Sirius is free, I won't be telling them exactly what happened, I may never say that I helped him escape, at least until they learn Occlumency."

"Occlumency?" Andromeda turned to face Lily. "Dora learned about that in Defense against the Dark Arts last year. It's a mind defense, right?"

"Right," Lily nodded in agreement "Since I was in the Order, I was required to learn Occlumency after Hogwarts."

"Aurors are required as well; Dora mentioned it as one of the things she'd have to do in the Auror training program. If she knows you know Occlumency she'll probably ask you questions."

"She finally decided she wanted to be an Auror?" The last Lily had heard she had been deciding between an Auror and Teaching.

"Yeah, she had to for her new defense teacher."

"Is it true they still have to hire someone new each year for Defense?" Andromeda nodded in response to Lily's question as Harry and Ariadne came into the kitchen again, this time their overnight bags in hand, Fantasia was following them.

"We're ready Mummy," Ariadne announced.

"Let's go." Lily said good bye to Andromeda and Fantasia and then she and her children moved to the floo, within moments they were gone.

* * *

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	10. Chapter 10

_**Greetings from Sin City! Here's Chapter 10 coming to you from Las Vagas!**_

**_Chapter 10:_**

Lily apperated in front of the house that Sirius was hiding out in with a pop, after making sure that everything had apperated with her, she walked up the front steps and entered the house. She found him in the kitchen, cooking something.

"You should be in bed." She ordered, "If you've got pneumonia."

"I feel fine."

One of Lily's eyebrows rose. "Bed." She all but ordered.

"I'm cooking." Sirius tried to convince Lily to let him stay up.

"Sirius Orion Black." Lily's tone got flat. "You have pneumonia, go to bed."

"But..."

"Bed!" Lily's tone allowed no argument.

"But what about the hot cocoa?" Sirius pointed to what he was making on the stove.

"I'll finish it." Lily said, she pointed up the stairs firmly.

"When am I going to be able to meet Harry and Ariadne?" Sirius asked as he started to head up the stairs.

"When you're free and don't have pneumonia." Lily said. "Which reminds me, Moody contacted me about your case, it goes to trial in January."

Sirius sighed heavily. "I've gotta be here for another month and a half?" He asked.

"Looks like it." Lily said, "But Madam Bones is the one who is going to be the judge for your case, and it's the soonest we could get her. She's really fair and she'll give you a fair hearing."

"But I'm not supposed to be at this trial?"

"I think it would look funny if you escaped but you knew when and where your trial would be and you showed up."

"If it's in the prophet I can say I picked one up from a rubbish bin."

"If you go to your trial, you'll probably be given Veriteserum." Lily said. She patted Sirius' shoulder; he stared at her for a moment as Lily spoke. "We'll figure something out Sirius, go up to bed and I'll be up with the hot cocoa soon."

Sirius nodded and went upstairs. Lily got the Potions out that she'd brewed for Sirius. She'd had to get to the black market to get some of the ingredients; she hoped they were good; Sirius needed the medicine she'd brewed.

The hot cocoa was soon finished and she took some up with the medicine for Sirius, after making sure he took it they both started talking.

"Are you dating anyone?"

"No, I don't really have the time." Lily said, "I'm raising Harry and Ariadne and working part time for a potions distributer."

Sirius nodded and they continued to talk. Lily stayed long after the time she'd promised her children she'd be back. Sirius seemed lonely and she'd missed talking with her friend. Finally though, she had to leave. She made sure that Sirius had everything he needed for a while so he wouldn't have to get out of bed and he could rest. After leaving the house, she apperated home. Harry and Ariadne were in the parlour, reading. Severus was there, as well, which surprised Lily, She'd asked her next door neighbor to stay with her children while she'd been out of the house.

"What took so long Mum?" Harry asked, "I thought we were going to Honeydukes."

"I'm sorry Harry," Lily apologized, "I got to talking with Sirius and lost track of time. It's too late to go today, we can go another time." She turned to Sev. "What brought you over? I thought you stayed at Hogwarts on the weekends."

"I managed to get some more of the ingredient you asked for." Severus took a package from his robes and handed it over to Lily.

"What ingredient did you ask for Mum?" Ariadne asked, she looked up from her book.

"Sev, you're a life saver." Lily proclaimed, she turned to her daughter "I needed more Tarantula venom."

Ariadne had started to get up to look at the package, but she stopped, halfway up from the couch. "We better stay away from it then," she said, I was reading the book Uncle Sev got me for my birthday, and it said that it's really dangerous." For a moment Lily thought she saw something close to pride in Severus' eyes. Ariadne was only seven but she had began to take after her mother's love of potions.

"It is dangerous, but it's also vital for the medicine's I'm making for Uncle Sirius." Lily said.

"I must get back to Hogwarts." Severus said, he stood from the chair he had been sitting.

"All right, I'll owl you with our Christmas details."

Severus nodded and left.

"Mum, I know you don't know where Uncle Sirius is, but do you think he'll send Christmas gifts?" Harry asked. Lily had told her children that she didn't know where Sirius was, chances are they wouldn't be questioned abut it in any way about Sirius, but she'd rather lie to them now to keep them safe then to tell the truth and put them in danger.

"Maybe." Lily said, it depends on if he can get to Gringotts to get some money." Lily said. She knew that the Goblins would help Sirius get into his vault. If she'd learned anything from her dealings with the Goblins it was that they'd be more willing to help Sirius, an escaped felon, into his vault, then to help her get her money.

"Can we buy Uncle Sirius Christmas gifts too?"

"I think he'd be happier with homemade gifts." Lily said, _Plus, homemade gifts are harder for Aurors to track, _She thought.

"What do you think he'd like for us to make him?"

"Once he's free, he'll have to have a house somewhere, we could make him stuff to hang on the walls." Lily suggested.

"I'll write him a book." Ariadne decided, "About a snail and a frog."

"A snail and a frog?" Harry laughed as Lily headed down to her potions lab to put the tarantula venom up. She'd join her children's in arts and crafts once it was safe. As she walked down the stairs to the basement, Lily faintly heard her daughter say "Harry! Look! A shooting star, wish upon it, if we wish hard enough maybe Uncle Sirius will be here for Christmas!"

Weeks past and finally, it was Christmas Eve, the house was bursting with Christmas secrets and both Potter children were still wishing that their long lost Uncle Sirius would be able to visit. They knew it was unlikely, but they, like all children wished for the impossible at Christmas.

"Mum, do you think he's warm?" Ariadne was the one to ask, "It's so cold outside." She was looking out the front window, as if thinking that he'd walk right up the front garden.

"I'm sure he's fine." Lily averted her eyes when Harry looked over at her, she knew her son was beginning to figure things out, she'd been gone more then usual, Harry was smarter then he let on, he knew something was up but he wouldn't say anything unless he had proof, as of yet, he didn't have it.

"Lily!" Dora Tonks' head appeared in the floo.

"Yes?" Lily went over to the floo and knelt.

"When would be a good time for us to come over tomorrow?"

"Can Fantasia spend the night?" Ariadne had turned from the window when she'd heard Dora's voice.

"Not tonight, we've got Christmas traditions," Dora said, "my mum already told me that was the answer if anyone asked."

"Anytime after 9 am would be fine." Lily told the 6th year.

Dora nodded and then she disappeared. Just then there was a bark and a scratch at the door. Harry had been walking by it and he opened the door. A big white dog stood shivering on the front step and Lily raised an eye brow at the dog, had Sirius actually changed into his animagus form and come over?

Mum look, he's cold!" Harry said, he knelt and took the Dogs collar in one hand and led the dog in. He stood shivering in the front hall as Lily continued to look at him. She could see now that it wasn't Sirius, this dog was white and she knew that Padfoot's animagus was black.

"Let's bring him into the kitchen and warm him up." Lily said, "I'll dish out some food for him."

Soon the dog was curled up on the rug in front of the oven, lapping some left over's from a bowl that Lily had set in front of him.

"He doesn't have a tag on his collar." Harry said, "Can we keep him?"

"Let's make sure his owner isn't looking for him first." Lily said, "We'll make some posters and send them around the neighborhood."

"Mum, is this Uncle Sirius?" Harry then asked. "I know his animagus form is a dog."

"Uncle Sirius' animagus form is a black dog." Lily told her children, she put a bowl of water down in front of the dog and scratched his head, the dog looked up gratefully and then started lapping up the water, alternating between the bowl of food and the bowl of water.

"What should we call him?" Ariadne had another question.

"Why don't you two come up with a name and if no one turns up for him that'll be his name." Lily suggested.

It took a while but before bedtime, the dog had a new name: Snow.

* * *

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	11. Chapter 11

_**I'd like to apologize for the slowness in posting. I've been very busy, as I'm looking for a job and another place to live all the while working over 40 hours a week. Chapters may be a little slower until I find a better job, and for that I apologize. I'm still working on this story, I just don't know how long it'll take me to find a job and living situation where I have more time to write. But on the plus side, I've got two chapters to post today!**_

_**First week of January, 1990: Harry age 9, Ariadne, age 7.**_

Lily hurried into the house, she was done at work for the week and she had Sirius' trial this weekend. The kids knew how important it was, so hopefully they'd make themselves scarce until afterwards.

"Mum, have you seen Snow?" Ariadne asked, she was wandering around downstairs and looked worried.

"I just got home, I haven't seen anything." Lily told her daughter, "He likes to sleep on Harry's bed, why don't you go check there?"

"Already did, he's not there." Ariadne checked the cupboard under the stairs and then went back upstairs, "I'll check my room again." She murmured.

Lily went to the kitchen where she found Bellyah, her neighbor and some times baby sitter putting dishes into the sink. "Thank you for filling in for Tabitha," Lily said, speaking of the sitter who usually watched Harry and Ariadne.

"It's no problem," Bellyah said, "I didn't have work today, so I was free to bring Lucy over."

"How has your work been?" Lily asked; her neighbor had just started a band with her brother and sister; it was called the Weird Sisters.

"Pretty good, we got WHRT to play one of our songs, we're getting more exposure."

"I've got a request too, that I forgot about earlier, I gave one of your CD's to Dora, she's a 6th year at Hogwarts, but she's got some friends graduating this year and she wants to give the CD's as graduation gifts, she needs 4. She'll be happy to buy them from you."

"I'll bring them over when I come to watch Harry and Ariadne during the trial tomorrow; she can send the money anytime."

"All right, thank you."

Bellyah left with four year old Lucy and Lilygot some soup to warm on the stove and sat at the kitchen table and made sure that she had all the paperwork and evidence needed to free Sirius. She was glad that they'd been able to get Madam Bones as the judge over the trial. Madam Bones was hard but fair. She'd also allowed Remus to give his testimony before the trial as tonight was the full moon and he wouldn't be feeling up to going to trial in the morning.

"Found him!" Ariadne cried from the attic, Lily turned back to her notes and was soon engrossed in them. Two hours later, after triple checking that she had everything she needed for the next day she packed everything away safely and put it all in her bag and finished cleaning the kitchen. Harry and Ariadne had already had dinner; she found them both in the living room playing Gobstones.

"Mum?" Harry asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why can't we go to the trial?"

"Because court is no place for children." Lily said, "Not for this trial any way, there's probably going to be Dementors there."

Harry sighed and made his turn, "okay."

Lily spent another hour with her children before the three of them got ready for bed, after talking with both Harry and Ariadne for a couple of minutes, the two of them went to bed. Lily lay in bed for several hours after that, worrying. Was tomorrow's trial going to end well or badly for Sirius?

She woke early and quickly got ready, the trial was to start early and she wanted to make sure that she got there well before it started. After Bellyah got there, she left and flooed to the ministry, she was nearly an hour early but went to the courtroom and waited outside of it. As she waited for Sirius' lawyer, her attention was turned to the other end of the hall where, when she saw what was happening, her mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Sirius?" She asked, her friend was being lead to the court room, he had six Aurors surrounding him including Mad-Eye Moody and Rufus Scrimgeor. Sirius looked tired and she wondered what had happened.

"What happened?" She addressed Auror Moody.

"He turned himself in this morning." Auror Moody told her, "Said he wanted to make sure that everyone knew his side of the story." Lily felt there was more to the story then Moody was letting on, but she didn't push it.

They all entered the courtroom and soon the trial had started. Lily knew that it would be a long trial but even she was surprised when, only ten minutes into the trial, Fudge and Umbridge, a horrible witch in the Wizengamot both requested for Remus' testimony to not count because he wasn't physically in the trial. Never mind that he'd gone though the proper channels to give his testimony the legal way beforehand and since he technically had a disability the courts had to accommodate him.

Madam Bones, and a little over half of the witches and Wizards in the Wizengamot were thankfully able to see reason and sense and they allowed Remus' testimony. She was called up and questioned under Veriteserum; thankfully she wasn't asked any questions about whether or not she had done anything to help Sirius escape from Azkaban.

Lunch came, finally and Lily took the opportunity to ask Auror Moody another couple of questions. "When did he turn himself in?"

"This morning," Auror Moody said, he glanced behind and around himself with his magical eye; Lily tried not to get too nauseous.

Lily turned to Sirius and raised an eyebrow. "I was rummaging in a rubbish bin the other day and found a paper with the date and time of my trial in it." Sirius said, his face a picture of innocent honesty.

"Really?"

"Really." Sirius nodded this time. "I'm willing to testify to that under Veriteserum."

"You just might need too boy," Auror Moody said.

Lunch passed by quickly and they were soon being called back into the Courtroom Ten. Sirius was called up to the stand and questioned for nearly an hour under Veriteserum. Lily watched the questioning with a heavy heart, they were sure to ask about Sirius knew about the trial date, right? Sure enough, they asked how he'd known the date of the trial.

Lily could clearly remember telling Sirius 'your trial starts Friday January fifteenth.'

"I've been on the run since I escaped Azkaban, I found a wizarding family in London and one night when the rubbish bins were put out, I grabbed some things from them, food and such. One of the things I grabbed was a daily prophet, I saw the date of the trial and realized this was my chance to turn myself in and make sure that my side of the story was heard."

Lily looked at Sirius in awe; he was resisting the effects of Veriteserum! Moody had chosen the seat beside her and he nudged her and shook his head quietly, as if trying to say 'don't act so surprised.'

The trial continued, but before even half of the evidence could be presented, it was late afternoon and time to go home.

"Mr. Black, we will provide you with small quarters here in the ministry, you will stay there until the trial is finished with." Madam Bones said, "We will reconvene tomorrow at 8 am." Many of the witches and Wizards in the Wizengamot murmured in complaint, but no one, not even Fudge said anything about the fact that they were expected to work on a Saturday and the early time of the trial.

Lily had recently read through the rules and regulations of the ministry in regards to when they had someone in the Ministry on trial and she darted forward to Sirius. "If you're staying in the Ministry trial quarters you get a visitor, who do you want to visit with?"

Sirius looked at Lily, "You mentioned that you knew Andromeda, can I visit with her?"

Lily nodded. "I'll floo call her tonight."

"Thanks."

"You can have one family visit, meaning any children she has can come too." Moody spoke up.

"It'll be up to her and Ted whether or not Dora or Fantasia come along." Lily spoke up, "But I'll tell her that the kids can come along as well."

"Who's Fantasia?" Sirius asked, "I haven't received any letters from her while I was in Azkaban."

Lily's jaw went slack for a moment, he didn't know about Fantasia? She recovered quickly and said, "After the war there were a lot of orphans, Andromeda and Ted took one in, they named her Fantasia, she's Ariadne's age."

"Ariadne is eight correct?"

"She's turning eight in June, she's still seven." Lily corrected. "And Harry turns ten in July."

Sirius nodded but any response he would have made was cut off by the Aurors guiding him away. Moody stayed with her and gestured to the lift, "Would you mind if I accompany you up to the atrium?" It came out as a question but Lily knew the order, he wanted to talk to her privately.

"Of course." Lily said, they walked from the courtroom to the elevator. She made to enter the elevator but was stopped by Moody's walking stick; he'd shoved it in front of the lift button. "Let's let the Wizengamout up before we go." His gravely voice was quiet.

The lift went up with the last of the Wizengamot members and Moody then pushed the button for it to come back down again. "Black told me everything about how you, Snape and McGonagall helped him escape." He began, "I could tell that you didn't believe what we told you this morning, I don't blame you, for right now though, we can't tell you what happened this morning."

"After the trial?" Lily asked quietly, a lift got there and they both entered it.

"That's what we were thinking." Moody said, the doors closed and the lift began its ascent.

There was a comfortable silence between the two of them, as it rose. Moody spoke as they reached the Atrium. "I'll see you tomorrow Mrs. Potter, I'll be attending the trial, no matter how many days or weekends it takes to get to the bottom of this."

"Thank you," Lily said, they exited the lift and parted. Lily turned to the floo's it was time to go home.

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	12. Chapter 12

_**Here's chapter 12, I hope you all enjoy it!**_

_**Chapter 12:**_

Sirius Black glanced up as he heard someone coming down the hall, make that more then one someone, three or four by the sounds of it. Who was visiting him? It had to be early in the evening, at least 7 pm.

"Black, you've got visitors." Moody's voice sounded from the other side of the door, Sirius felt a leap of something in his chest, was it hope? It had been so long since he'd felt it, the feeling was foreign to him now. He could hear keys jangling and the door swung open slowly.

"Hey cousin." Andromeda stepped into the room, grinning.

Sirius couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face. A younger woman stepped through, along with a little girl that looked exactly like Andromeda and Bellatrix had when they were children. Sirius' mouth dropped open as he watched the young woman's hair change from blue to pink.

"Dora?" He asked, surprised. He knew that the girl he'd left behind had grown; every child grew into an adult. However the change in Dora surprised him. She'd grown at least a foot and was nearly Andromeda's height now. Something that hadn't changed though was her smile.

"Hi Sirius!" Her voice was as happy as he was to see her. He and Andromeda hugged, and then he and Dora hugged, he got solemn however, when he squatted so he was more on Fantasia's level.

"You're Fantasia?" He asked.

"Yes, this is Fantasia…" Andromeda said her hands on her youngest daughter's shoulders.

"Her nickname is Asia." Dora spoke up.

"That is a nice nickname." Sirius told her, "When's your birthday?" He asked, "That way I know when to buy you presents."

"April 5th." Fantasia grinned.

Two hours later, the Tonk's girls left Sirius and Moody locked the door again. "I'll be back in the morning, about 7:45."

Sirius nodded and lay back on the bed, while he had been happy to see Lily and Remus while he had been in hiding; it was especially nice to see family.

* * *

The day dawned bright and early and Lily was up much earlier then usual. She quietly got ready for trial and started breakfast, Bellyah was coming over but she didn't want to make her neighbor have to do too much since she was taking a Saturday to watch over children that weren't even hers.

Bellyah had a key and Lily turned when she heard her friend coming in, Lucy in tow.

"Coffee's in the pot." Lily said, she pointed to the coffee maker and then turned to Lucy who looked abut half-asleep. "You can put her in the guest bedroom upstairs or I can make her some hot chocolate."

Bellyah sighed and thought for a moment, "It's only 6:30; I'll put her to bed in the guest bedroom."

"Up the stairs, you'll see which bedroom it is as there are signs on the doors for Harry and Ariadne's room, my room is obvious, and we've only got the one guest room." Lily directed.

Bellyah nodded a thank you and carried Lucy up the stairs. By the time she came back down, Lily had finished making the pancakes and was making sure the orange juice was in the fridge. "I've started making breakfast for Harry and Ariadne, we usually have pancakes faces on Saturday, the kids will know where the toppings are, and no matter what Harry says, I do not let him use chocolate syrup on his pancake faces unless it's his birthday."

Bellyah nodded and Lily quickly dished herself up some breakfast and began to eat. She quickly finished and then went upstairs to get dressed, she nearly ran into Harry as the nine year old came out of his room, he was half dressed and looked like he was abut to fall asleep on his feet.

"Pancakes are ready downstairs sport." Lily said, hurrying past him.

"Mum, yesterday, you said that there weren't Dementors, so can I please go to the trial today?" Harry yawned after he finished talking.

Lily glanced through her daughter's open door to see Ariadne was still fast asleep.

"If you can get ready without Ariadne waking up," Lily said, she knew her daughter would be mad when she woke up to find that Harry had gone to the trial and she hadn't been woken up, but Ariadne never completely woke in the morning until at least nine in the morning.

Harry nodded and went back into his room to finish getting dressed.

Lily quickly got dressed and went back down stairs, "I'm taking Harry with me." She told Bellyah as her nine year old came down the stairs.

"Grab some breakfast quickly Harry," she directed, "and make sure you eat up, we won't be able to get a snack during the trial, they break for lunch only."

"Okay." Harry began inhaling some pancakes as soon as he sat at the kitchen table.

Lily finished getting ready and by the time she was done, Harry was ready as well. "Let's go, we're going to be flooing to the ministry." Lily said, she and her son flooed into the Miistry and she quickly took her son's hand and guided him to a lift. "The trial starts at eight, if we're not in the court room at 7:45, we won't be allowed in." she said when Harry asked why she was hurrying so much.

They got to Courtroom Ten just in the nick of time and Lily could see Sirius' looking around, and behind him, looking for someone. He and Lily made eye contact and Lily jerked her head to the side, motioning to Harry. Sirius stared for a moment before it hit him, who was sitting next to Lily. His mouth dropped open and he stared at Harry, who was fidgeting in his seat. Harry finally looked up and waved at Sirius, who smiled and waved back quickly.

The trial reconvened, it was time for Sirius to go back under Veriteserum, since he was the one under scrutiny, he'd likely go through several more days of this, depending on how many questions Fudge and the other Wizengamot members could think of.

Lunch came and Lily took Harry to the small fast food restaurant in the Ministry, Harry chewed quietly until Lily poked him. "Knut for your thoughts." She teased.

"The trial is different then I thought it would be." Harry said quietly. "Uncle Sirius looks differently then the pictures."

"About eight years have passed since the pictures were taken." Lily pointed out, "and in those eight years, he hasn't eaten well." She tussled her son's hair and spoke: "When Sirius gets free, we'll have to fatten him up a little bit, have him over for dinner a lot."

"Can we have a big celebratory dinner with Bellyah, Lucy and Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted's family?"

"If Uncle Sirius wants to."

Harry nodded quietly and went back to his meal. "Would you like to go back to the house?" Lily asked, knowing her son would be too stubborn to ask the question.

Harry looked surprised, "No Mum, not until the trial is over." He shook his head stubbornly.

"Okay, it's all right if you want to go home though; I know this might be difficult for you to understand."

"Not until the end of the trial." Harry said stubbornly, he shook his head again.

Lily shrugged, "Okay Harry, but if you want to go home, just say the word."

Harry nodded and turned back to his lunch, Lily was unable to speak with Sirius until after the trial had finished for the day, thankfully things had moved faster on Saturday then they had the day before, and by the end of the day, the Wizengamot members were beginning to deliberate on whether or not Sirius should be pardoned. No one but the Wizengamot members were allowed in the courtroom and everyone else left the courtroom. Harry stayed close to Lily and quietly asked. "Mum, I thought they just took a vote and that was it."

"For cases like this, they'll deliberate and take several votes until they are sure about the decision." Lily told her son.

Sirius approached them, he still had his Auror guards with him and he spoke quietly. "Harry?"

"Hi Uncle Sirius." Harry said, Lily could tell that while some of the cheerfulness was forced, he was genuinely glad to see his Godfather.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to come yesterday, but Mum wouldn't let me, said their might be Dementors here." Harry said, "Last night Mum said there weren't Dementors so I asked if I could come."

"You let him come to the trial?" Sirius asked.

"Unless he's on trial, he's not going to learn any better about the Wizarding Justice system." Lily said quietly, "and since I sincerely doubt he's ever going to be on trial…" She shrugged.

"Ariadne's probably pitching a fit about not being able to go." Harry commented, looking relieved that he wasn't home.

Lily shrugged, she had no pity for her daughter, "I would have said no to her going if she'd been up when I was getting ready."

"They've reached a decision!" Lily wasn't sure who had spoken, but they all filed back into the courtroom and took their previous seats.

Madam Bones sat back down in the Judge's seat and adjusted her monocle. She cleared her throat and spoke to the Wizengamot. "All those in favor of pardoning Sirius Black, raise your hands."

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	13. Chapter 13

_**Here's chapter 13, sorry I didn't post on Monday, life is still busy but things are getting better. Hopefully I'll be able to post again on Monday.**_

_**Chapter 13:**_

Lily sucked in a breath and looked around, she could hear Harry counting beside her, but he didn't count fast enough and they soon put their hands down as Madam Bones spoke again. "All those in favor of re-imprisoning Mr. Black?"

Lily started counting again but let out a sigh of relief as she realized that there were fewer hands raised now then there were in favor of pardoning Sirius.

"The ayes have it," Sirius grinned and turned to Lily and Harry who were also grinning.

"Mr. Black," Madam Bones said, "you are free to go, you'll get your wand back on Monday."

Sirius nodded as Madam Bones began to get her things ready to leave. The Aurors had dispersed by the time Lily and Harry had reached Sirius and Sirius threw his arms around Lily. "Thank you Lily," he said; his voice thick with emotion.

"You're welcome Sirius; you would have done the same thing for me."

They left the Courtroom then, and Harry asked "Can we have a big dinner at our house to celebrate?"

"Sounds good to me." Sirius said, "As long as Lily is fine with it."

"It's fine with me," Lily said, who would you like there?"

"Remus, and Andromeda's family."

"Can we have Bellyah and Lucy over too?" Harry asked, "Bellyah's our next door neighbor, she and Lucy came over today and yesterday to help Mum during the trial."

"Are Bellyah and Lucy a couple?" Sirius asked.

"Bellyah is Lucy's Mum." Lily said, they walked to the elevator and Lily flicked her wand and three does sprang from her wand, they bounded off in different directions. "Who did you send your Patronus to?" Harry asked.

"Remus, Andromeda and Bellyah." Lily said, they waited for a moment before a lift opened and they, along with several other members of the Wizengamout. The lift began to climb and they were soon on the main floor of the Ministry. "Let's go home," Lily said, "Bellyah should be expecting us."

They all took the floo back to the Potter house and Sirius looked to Lily. "Why couldn't Remus come to the trial?" He asked, "I understand the first day, he was recovering from the full moon, but…"

"He injured himself during the full Moon," Lily said quietly. "While it wasn't sever enough for him to need St. Mungo's, he also didn't really feel up to coming out and drawing attention."

Sirius nodded and then looked around, "Where's Ariadne?" He asked.

"Ariadne!" Lily called in the hallway, their house was small; her seven year old would hear her.

"I'm playing Gobstones with Lucy!" Ariadne's voice came from her room.

"Come out here! There's someone I want you to meet." Lily called.

Both Lucy and Ariadne came to the top of the stairs. "Mummy, you didn't let me go to the trial, but Harry went."

"Yes he did." Lily agreed, "You're too young to be going to the trial."

"Did he get pardoned?" Ariadne asked, coming down the stairs.

"Come and see." Lily grinned and turned from the stairwell.

Ariadne bounded down the last few steps and looked into the hall. "Uncle Sirius?" she called.

"Yes?" Sirius stepped from the living room into the hall.

"Hi!" Ariadne said, she didn't seem to notice that Sirius' eyes had suddenly filled with tears as he looked at the young girl. "It's nice to meet you Uncle Sirius."

"Nice to meet you too Ariadne." Sirius bent so he was closer to the young girl's eye level.

"Do you know how to play Gobstones?" Ariadne asked.

"Yes,"

"Wanna play against me and Lucy?"

"Sure." Sirius said. Ariadne darted back upstairs with Lucy and Sirius turned to Lily.

"She has James' eyes."

Lily nodded, smiling "I know."

Lucy and Ariadne came running down the stairs then and Ariadne grabbed Sirius' hand and pulled him into the living room, "Let's play!" She said.

The three of them got the game ready and began to play. Lily stepped into the kitchen, "Bellyah, Lucy's playing Gobstones, it's really cute." Bellyah grabbed her camera and the friends peeked into the living room, the click of the camera caught Sirius' attention and he stared at the two women.

"Sirius, it's your turn." Lucy said.

Sirius took his turn and then looked back up to Lily and Bellyah, who were watching their daughters look at the game board in concentration.

"Lily, introductions?" Sirius asked as the girls made their turn.

"Oh, Sirius, this is Bellyah, Bellyah this is Sirius." Lily said, amused. She'd never seen Sirius like this, but maybe Azkaban had changed him.

Remus suddenly stepped through the floo and Sirius grinned to the werewolf. "Hey Rem."

"Hello, Sirius."

"Hi Uncle Moony," Ariadne greeted, she turned back to the board.

Remus bent and kissed the girl on the top of the head. "Have you finished the newest Justice book yet?"

"Yeah, I can't wait until the newest one comes out."

"That's what you said last time," Remus laughed.

"It was true then, it's true now," Ariadne shrugged "I'm just glad that I found a friend who likes the Justice books as much as I do."

"What's your friend's name?"

"Drac," Ariadne remembered the name wrong. "We met at Flourish and Blots just before Christmas and we've been writing to each other and we've become friends."

"You're friends with a boy?" Sirius asked.

Ariadne shrugged, "Harry's friends with girls, why can't I be friends with boys?"

"I've read his letters, he seems like a very nice responsible young man, he's a year or so older then Ariadne." Lily said, she smiled at Remus, "Andromeda's family is coming and Bellyah and Lucy are staying for dinner."

"What's for dinner Aunt Lily?" Lucy asked, as Sirius took his turn.

"I'm making Fish and Chips." Lily said, "I seem to remember that was Sirius' favorite."

"After Azkaban food, I'm sure anything will be my favorite." Sirius said, Lucy and Ariadne took their turn, brows furrowed as they concentrated.

"Hello Ariadne." Both Lucy and Ariadne turned when they heard Andromeda's voice.

"Hi Auntie Dromeda." Ariadne greeted, "Fantasia, come here, help us beat Sirius at Gobstones."

Fantasia pulled up a chair as Sirius said, "I think that you girls pretty much have me beat."

"You're not giving up!" Ariadne said, "Maybe Fantasia can be on your team, she's really good."

"Please Sirius?"

"We'll finish this game, and then I'll go talk with the adults." Sirius compromised.

"Okay." The game progressed and soon Fantasia and Sirius were celebrating a win. Lily poked her head into the living room.

"Time for dinner!"

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	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but considering I've posted late several times in the past month or so I figure you all would want a chapter today instead of later this week. I'm pretty busy with my new job but the next chapter will be longer, I promise.**

**Chapter 14:**

Early Monday morning, Sirius Black waited somewhat impatiently in front of the office he'd been told to report to, so he could get his wand back. He had it back by a couple of minutes after nine and he quickly hurried to the Auror office to give yet another statement to Auror Moody about Pettigrew's animagus form. He'd given it to him the week before when he'd turned himself in, early the morning of the trial but now that he was out they were launching a search for Pettigrew.

Moody was waiting for him and they quickly got to work. Moody seemed to be the only one who was taking Sirius seriously about Pettigrew being alive still which frustrated and pleased him at the same time. It was frustrating that Moody was the only one that believed him, but it was also nice that someone besides Lily and Remus believed him.

They worked quickly and by the time lunch rolled around, there were posters up describing Pettigrew's animagus form and what he might look like now. Moody sat down a couple of plates of food and motioned for Sirius to eat. "I know Azkaban food isn't the best, eat up."

Sirius nodded and they ate in silence for a few moments. "I have a question." Sirius spoke between bites. Moody grunted and Sirius assumed that meant he was free to ask it, he remembered Moody had never been particularly talkative. "How would I go about becoming an Auror again?" Before he had been wrongfully imprisoned he'd been an Auror.

"You'll have to go through a re-training." Moody said shortly, "It's a minimum of six months; most re-trainee's need more time then that."

"Okay where do I go…."

"There's a lot of paperwork to fill out and you talk to Crouch as well, he has to approve it. I'll put in a good word for you, though, he might need some convincing. You were a damn good Auror though; I hated to lose you."

Sirius nodded quietly as another Auror walked up to them. "Moody, we've got Weasley from Misuse of Muggle artifacts office, says he needs to talk to you." His deep voice was calming.

"What's he want?"

"Says it's about the posters we put up, says he has information."

Moody and Sirius stood, food forgotten about, "Bring him in here."

An older balding wizard soon came in, he was wearing robes that were clearly used but in good condition. "Auror Moody?" He was gripping the bill that had been sent to everyone in the Ministry describing Pettigrew's anaimagus form.

"Yes?"

"Arthur Weasley, I work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office?" He spoke quietly but Sirius could tell that the man was intelligent. "I got this bill today…." There was a pause and Weasley took a breath as if to steel himself against something. "And I realized I know him through his animagus form."

"What?" Sirius asked, he hadn't expected Pettigrew to be found this quickly.

"He's been living in his Animagus form, with my family, one of my middle son's took him to Hogwarts, Percy is a third year right now."

"Let's go get him." Moody's voice was gruff. "Kingsley!" he barked the name out, the tall dark man who had brought Weasley to them came up again.

"Yes?"

"Get Crouch, we know where Pettigrew is."

Kingsley nodded and then left. Moody turned back to Sirius, "Since you're not an Auror, you can't go with us while we pick Pettigrew up."

"I know." Sirius said, "Can I stick around the office though, for when you come back?"

"Technically no, but…" He trailed off as he dug around in his desk for something; he finally came up with it and a stack of paperwork dropped in front of the ex-inmate. "You can start filling out paperwork to become an Auror again."

Sirius looked at the paperwork, "Sounds like fun." He said, trying to stay upbeat.

Crouch came up to them with Kingsley and another Auror, Crouch looked Weasley up and down quickly before speaking, "Since we'll be speaking to a minor, we'll need to have a parent present, Weasley come with us."

Arthur nodded and after gathering a few extra Aurors, they all left, Sirius sent off a patronus to Lily updating her on the search and then grabbed a quill and began to fill out the paperwork in front of him. Might as well get the paperwork done while he had the chance.

Lily arrived about an hour later, she was wearing her work robes and she took a seat next to Sirius, Sirius knew that neither one of them should be allowed to stay so long in the Auror office without an escort but the rest of the Aurors in the office seemed to ignore them for the most part.

It took several hours but the group of Aurors finally returned, Pettigrew in their grasp.

Weasley was still with them and Moody took one look at Lily and Sirius sitting together and said "We'll need statements from the both of you tonight."

Lily and Sirius both nodded "I'll be happy to stay as long as I'm needed; my children are safe so I can stay." Lily told Moody.

Kingsley took Weasley aside and then Crouch took Lily's testimony while Moody took another one from Sirius'. They were there for several hours and by the time that Lily was done with Crouch's questioning, it was past dinner.

Lily wearily made her way to the floo's this was just the beginning, she could tell. But even if the journey and battle were long, they would be worth it if that meant that Pettigrew would be put behind bars.

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	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15:**

**As much as I'd love to be able to spend chapters upon chapters on Pettigrew and how he was captured, and all that, I just can't, I've got to get further along in the story, but I knew that if I didn't have at least a couple of chapters some characters (and readers) would object and I'd have a full scale mutiny on my hands. So I decided that I needed a couple of chapters on Pettigrew's trial and all of that. I'm also considering moving my posting days to Saturdays as I usually have more free time on the weekends.**

**And I know this chapter isn't much longer then the last chapter but It ended really well right where it did.**

**Enjoy!**

Lily Potter quickly got ready for court, Sirius had been pardoned six months before and it was finally time for Pettigrew to be tried. Harry bounded down the stairs "Mum can I go to court with you?" He asked.

"Maybe, if there aren't any Dementors, which I won't know until later today," Lily said, "Even if there aren't Dementors, I'll decide tomorrow whether or not you can go."

"Okay." Harry said, he sat at the table and poured himself some granola and then spooned some yogurt on top of it. As he poured himself some orange juice from the pitcher on the table, he looked up at Lily, "I know this is really grown up stuff that's going on in the trial but could you tell me about it when you get home?" he asked.

"In age appropriate language." Lily said, "And I'm still deciding about whether or not you'll get to go with me to the trial even if there aren't Dementors in the courtroom."

Harry nodded and began to eat breakfast. Lily quickly finished her own breakfast and then thanked Bellyah who had let herself in through the backdoor. "I'm not sure how long I'll be gone today, I'll try to send an owl home about noon with some information on how long it might take for the trial to finish." Lily said hurriedly. "Ariadne probably won't wake up until closer to nine, you know she likes to sleep in, but she needs to have a healthy breakfast, we have some sugary cereal in the cupboard but I don't want her to have it, she can have granola or a bowl of fruit." She turned to her son. "Harry, best behaviour, no playing tricks on Lucy or your sister."

"I won't Mum, promise." Harry said. Lily left then, flooing into the ministry and quickly heading towards Courtroom Ten.

She met Sirius and Remus outside the courtroom, they were speaking to Arthur Weasley, whom Lily had actually never met; she'd simply seen him around and knew him by sight.

"Hello Sirius, Remus." She greeted her friends. "Arthur Weasley, I presume?" She asked, extending her hand.

"Yes Mrs. Potter, please call me Arthur." He shook her hand and spoke in a friendly tone.

"Then call me Lily."

"Of course,"

They talked for a few minutes, the topic of children came up, Arthur mentioned that he and his wife had seven children, Lily stepped back, suddenly overwhelmed with an unexpected memory of James. Arthur noticed and grew concerned. "Are you all right?" He asked kindly. Sirius and Remus also noticed the change in Lily and she felt one, she was sure it was Remus lay a hand on her arm, she looked at all three men before she spoke.

Lily shook her head but said "I'm fine, James and I decided we wanted a big family, we were thinking seven or eight children would be wonderful." Lily told him, "It's just with the trial; a lot of tender memories are resurfacing. I'll be all right, thank you for your concern."

"You've probably heard this, but you're young, you might find someone new." Arthur said, Lily had in fact heard that sentiment before but she wasn't offended by it. She knew that wizards generally lived longer then Muggle's and therefore; witches childbearing years went on longer then a Muggle woman's.

"I have heard that before, but who would I find that wouldn't care that Harry's 'the-boy-who-lived?'" Lily asked. She didn't get a response from any of the three men beside her as the courtroom door opened and they were all allowed inside. To Lily's great surprise, Severus was there as well, he had a bag of potion bottles with him. "Severus, I didn't realize you were part of the trial too."

"I am giving a testimony and I'm providing the Veriteserum for Pettigrew's questioning." Severus said.

They took seats next to each other, Lily ignored Sirius' glare in Severus' direction and sat next to her old friend. Soon, Pettigrew was brought into the courtroom, along with several Dementors. Lily didn't even have to see the Dementors; she just felt their chill and decided that Harry was not coming to the trial. Then it happened,

_"Move out of the way you silly boy." Lily was suddenly remembering the night it happened, and Voldemort's voice sounded cold and cruel._

_"No." James said. He stood up straighter and brandished his wand at Voldemort. "I'm not."_

_"Move!" Voldemort ordered._

_"No!"_

Lily came back to the present suddenly, Severus had a wand out and there was a patronus shield between her and the Dementors. Sirius and Remus had also pulled out their wands and there was both a dog and a wolf patronus in the court room.

Lily too conjured a patronus, a doe sprang from her wand tip and she could feel the chill lessen. Someone handed her some chocolate she took it, turning to find Arthur Weasley sitting next to her. "Thank you." She said.

"You're very welcome, the Dementors can make even the happiest of people incredibly sad." Arthur said. "And you happen to have true horrors in your past."

Lily smiled thinly and they both turned as the session of court started.

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	16. Chapter 16

**_Chapter 16: Here's chapter 16, it's basically setting the next few chapters up, not much happens, sorry. and I'm about to stop apologizing for such short chapters, although I know they'll get longer sometime._**

**_I got a really good question in the reviews for last chapter; the question was something to the effect of: "Isn't Snape still a death eater? How will him testifying against Pettigrew work?" You're right, technically Snape is still a death eater. But technically, he's still a member of the Order as well. I'll go into greater detail in a later chapter (much later, like 5/6th year later), but basically, Severus is still a double agent. He may ultimately be good, but he's still a double agent. He still has to please two masters. Testifying against Pettigrew, makes him look good, makes it look like he's turned completely to the side with the Order, so during the war that Dumbledore and Severus knows is coming, no one will give too much of a complaint that Severus is in the Order. But when Voldemort asks him about it, Severus can say he testified for the same reason that he stayed at Hogwarts (admittedly under Dumbledore's direction) for two hours after Voldemort returned to power. He knew Voldemort would need a spy, he knew that Dumbledore needed a spy. And, being close to the Potter family, he will have fourteen/fifteen years worth of information on Harry and Lily to give to Voldemort. Even though it's between wars right now, Snape is still a double agent and has to act accordingly. Right now, since Voldemort isn't in power, he has to "prove" he's on the side of the Order._**

Bellatrix Lestrange woke to hear a new prisoner being led down the hallway. She glanced up, half curious as the prisoner was escorted by a couple of Dementors and a guard.

"Please NO!" The prisoner's screams were just like the ones before him and she tried to tune it out but the new prisoner was thrown into the cell next to hers, she stood and went to the door of her cell, barely feeling the chill from the Dementors "SHUT UP!" She screamed at the new prisoner.

He stopped almost immediately, but she could hear sniffling and she rolled her eyes. Great, not only was there another prisoner at Azkaban, (The Dementors always patrolled more when there was a new prisoner) but he was right next to her and to top it all of; the man cried.

A hour passed and Bellatrix could feel what little patience she had start to get thin. She hated hearing people cry, and he'd been crying forever. "Oh grow up." She finally snapped. "You're not the only one stuck here, get over it."

The sniffling stopped and Bellatrix tried to go back to sleep, maybe this was just a dream and she'd wake up to find Charismitia back in her arms, she missed her little girl.

* * *

Fantasia Tonks and Ariadne Potter looked up as Lily Potter flooed into the house. She looked worn out and their hearts skipped a beat. Was Peter in prison?

"What happened Mum?" Ariadne asked.

"He's in prison." Lily said, "I watched him being led into Azkaban myself. That's what took so long to get back here today." The trial had taken nearly a month to complete, Lily had begun to wonder if it would ever end.

There was a whoop of joy and Lily looked up to see Harry in the doorway. "He's gone to prison!" He yelled, there was noise in the kitchen and Bellyah and Andromeda both came in.

"He's in prison." Lily announced again, allowing herself to smile.

"I was cooking all day today." Bellyah said, "Let's go eat."

* * *

Bellatrix growled to herself as the Dementors came by her cell yet again. It had been 6 months and they still enjoyed to come by and make her cell neighbor miserable.

"You know," she growled to the man when the Dementors had left "If you stopped thinking about nice things they'd stop coming over."

"I thought I'd finally figured out a way to escape." the man said.

Bellatrix shook her head. "There's no way for any human being to escape." she told him.

"What about an animagus?"

"If they knew you're an animagus, they'd have put a spell on your cell." Belltraix said instantly. "Making it so you couldn't change. Do they know?"

"Yes." The man sounded disappointed.

"Can't change then." Bellatrix said shortly.

"What if I managed to get into your cell?"

"If you come into my cell to escape, you're taking me with you."

"Deal." the man said. "What's your name?"

"Bellatrix Lestrange." There was a long pause. "Yours?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

* * *

Fenrir Greyback crouched down and watched as his next target ran up to her Mum. "Mum, can we go to the park?"

"No, it's too cold, let's go and get inside." the target's mother said, she guided her duaghter up the walk.

The mother, daughter and Greyback turned as someone shouted, a man with long hair come up to them. He was wearing the purple and gold robes that Aurors wore and Greyback mentally cursed his luck. It would be difficult to get his target with an Auror around.

"Hi Uncle Sirius." the target said, smiling happily.

"Hey."

"Mummy, can Uncle Sirius have dinner with us?"

"If he wants to," the target's mother said.

"That would be nice, but I don't want to impose."

"It's fine, really, it's been a while since we've seen you." the targets mother said, "Let's get inside before we all get sick."

The trio moved inside and the door closed behind them. Greyback relaxed and moved to leave. He'd get that little girl, but it would just take more time.

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	17. Chapter 17

_**I'm fast forwarding a little bit because as much as I'd love to be able to spend lots of chapters on right after Pettigrew got sent to Azkaban, important things need to happen and they'll only happen if some time has past. This chapter is set in May/June of 1991; it's the beginning of the summer before Harry starts Hogwarts.**_

_**Ages:**_

_**Dora: 17 (about to turn 18, graduating Hogwarts)**_

_**Harry: 10 (about to turn 11 in July)**_

_**Ginny: 9 (about to turn 10, her birthday is in August)**_

_**Fantasia: 9 (A young Nine) She's already had her birthday, it's in April)**_

_**Ariadne: 8 (her birthday isn't for another month, It's late May, her birthday is in late June.)**_

Lily sighed and looked at her watch, "Harry!" she called up the stairs, "Let's go! Dora's graduation starts in an hour and we have to be there early or we won't be allowed in the Great Hall."

"I'm coming." Harry hurried down the stairs, his miniature dress robes fluttering as he ran.

"Okay, Ariadne, you've got everything?"

"Yes Mum." Ariadne said, they quickly flooed to Hogsmead and then hurried up the path to the castle.

They got into the Great Hall just in the nick of time and quickly found the seats that the Tonks' had saved for them. "Sorry we're late." Lily mouthed to Andromeda. Lily could see Dora amongst the Hogwarts graduates; for once her hair was a normal colour, instead of the usual pink. Lily wondered how in the world someone had convinced Dora to make her hair stay normal.

The graduation commenced and the students were soon walking over the stage and accepting their diplomas. However, Lily noticed that there was a difference in how the students graduated, from when she was in the graduating class, before; they'd been sectioned off into their separate houses. In Dora's graduation however, they were separated into their separate chosen careers, teachers, healers, ministry workers etc. Lily grinned as the Aurors were called up. Dora was the last Auror to be called up and she let her hair go from brown to pink as she walked up to accept her diploma.

Andromeda let out a frustrated sigh and pinched her nose, clearly trying to stay patient with her older daughter. Fantasia and Ariadne both laughed quietly as Dora stepped off the stage and went back to her seat, her hair still pink.

The graduation was soon over and the reception was in full swing. Lily lost sight of Ariadne but wasn't worried; there were enough teachers and adults there that nothing would happen to her. True to Lily's suspicions, Ariadne was safe; the eight year old was, in fact talking with a friend.

"Hey Drac." She greeted the boy, he turned, surprised.

"Hello Ariadne." He smiled at her and held out the small plate of treat's he'd gotten at the buffet table. "Wanna share?"

"Sure." Ariadne said, they sat down at a small table and began to talk, barely even noticing the passage of time.

"Who do you know that graduated?" Ariadne asked.

"No one, my father is on the board of directors, he comes every year." Draco said. "This year my Mum and I had to come along."

"Oh, we knew Dora, the girl who made her hair turn pink."

"That was funny."

"I know, wasn't it?" Ariadne and the boy laughed.

They continued to talk until Draco heard someone calling his name. "Draco? Draco!"

"That's my Mum, I've gotta go." Draco said, he left and Ariadne grabbed the still half full plate of treats and went looking for Fantasia. Ariadne found her friend by the radio that was playing, talking with another girl with red hair.

"Hi Fantasia." She greeted, both girls turned.

"Ariadne!" Fantasia pointed to the other girl, "This is Ginny, her brother graduated."

"Hi Ginny." Ariadne said. "I'm Ariadne,"

"When do you both start Hogwarts?" Ginny asked.

"I don't start for another couple of years." Ariadne said.

"Me neither, Adi and I will be in the same year." Fantasia agreed. "When will you start?"

"Not this year, but next, it looks like we won't be in the same year." Ginny seemed disappointed.

"My brother Harry starts this year." Ariadne said, "It's all he's been able to talk about since September, he's all like "Just think, this time next year I'll be sorted, this time next year, I'll be coming home for Christmas, stuff like that, it's been really annoying."

"My brother Ron has been doing that too!" Ginny said, "Brothers sure are annoying, aren't they?"

"Fantasia, it's time to go," Andromeda came up to the group of girls.

"Hey, since the three of us will be at home this year, do you want to write, be pen pals?" Ginny asked, she seemed a little desperate for a friend and Ariadne nodded, "I would, Harry's probably not going to be doing much writing after he gets to Hogwarts….."

"Neither is Ron." Ginny interrupted, and then she blushed "Sorry for interrupting you Ariadne."

The eight year old shrugged "its okay for my friends to interrupt me." She said. "Where do I send letters to?"

"Send them to Ginny Weasley." Ginny said. "I live at the Burrow; your owl should be able to find me."

"Bye Ginny." Fantasia waved and then left with her mother.

"What house do you think you'll be sorted into?" Ariadne asked, she shoved the plate of treats on the table beside them and gestured that Ginny could take some. The girl took a cookie and spoke.

"Probably Gryffindor, my parents and all my brothers except Ron are all in Gryffindor, Ron hasn't been sorted yet, he'll probably be in Gryffindor too." Ginny said.

"I'm probably going to be sorted into Gryffindor too," Ariadne said, "both my Mum and Dad were in Gryffindor."

The two girls continued to talk, not noticing that there weren't that many people left in the Great Hall. As Lily began to approach her daughter, Molly Weasley stopped her.

"I just noticed that our daughters were becoming friends, my name is Molly Weasley, I'm Ginny's mother."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Lily Potter." Lily introduced herself, "Is the Charlie Weasley who graduated your son?"

"Yes," Molly beamed; she looked over to where her son was talking with a professor. "and the girl your daughter is speaking with is Ginny she's my youngest, she'll be starting Hogwarts September of next year."

"Ariadne will start September after that." Lily said, "It was just yesterday that she was running after Harry yelling "I help you! I help you!" She remembered when her children had been younger. "And Harry starts this September, I'm not ready for him to grow up."

"My youngest boy, Ron starts this year too, time goes by so fast." Molly agreed.

"Now, I've met your husband because last year we were both testifying in Peter Pettigrew's trial, am I correct in remembering that you and your husband have seven children?" Lily asked.

"Oh yes." Molly laughed, "Arthur and I have Bill, who is a year older then Charlie, Charlie of course, Percy, Fred and George, Ron and Ginny."

Lily smiled, "I can't help but think that if James had lived, we would have more children then just Harry and Ariadne." She said, "We were both hoping for a large family."

"You're young, you've still got time." Molly said, then she laughed at the look on Lily's face. "I imagine you've heard that a lot?" She asked.

"Yes," Lily said, smiling, "some variation of that at least. I may be young and have time but who would I find that won't care that Harry's 'The-Boy-Who-Lived?'"

Severus Snape stepped up then, holding a drink out to Lily. "It's almost time for the reception to be over." He told her quietly as she took the drink and sipped.

"I should probably be going." Lily said, she smiled up at Severus, "Thank you for the drink." She turned to Molly, "It was nice to meet you; Ginny is welcome at our house anytime."

"And Ariadne is welcome at our house anytime as well." Molly returned, she turned to the two girls who were still talking, the plate of goodies empty. "Ginny it's time to go," After promising to write, the girls parted, each going to their separate family.

Lily and her children traveled down the path to Hogsmead and were soon home. As she stepped through the floo however, she could hear somebody outside. Curious, as the noise outside was unfamiliar to her usually quiet neighborhood, she opened the door. "Sirius?" She asked, He and several other Aurors were standing outside Bellyah's house, Lily could see now that the front door had been broken. Bellyah was sitting on the front steps, still in her night clothes, being questioned by Sirius.

The Auror turned at the sound of his name, then held up a finger as Bellyah kept talking. "I tried to blast him out of the house, but it didn't work, he knocked me to the side and I hit my head against the hall table. I blacked out, I suppose after that he ran up to Lucy's room."

An Auror approached Lily, "Ma'am, I need to ask you a couple of questions." She began. Lily turned to Harry and Ariadne who were standing in the door. "Stay inside, watch TV, okay?" She asked, "Keep the front door closed." Her children nodded and closed the front door. She turned back to the Auror, "What happened?"

"There's been a werewolf attack." The Auror said shortly, "Did you hear anything last night?"

"A werewolf attack!?" Lily was shocked, but composed herself. "I didn't hear anything, but I have noise canceling charms on the walls, the only part of the house I don't have a noise canceling charm on is the front, since Bellyah's to the side of me, I didn't hear anything."

"Where were you this morning? We knocked on your door to ask questions."

"We were at a graduation, we know a girl who graduated from Hogwarts this year, if you like you can go ask Professors Snape, Flitwick and McGonagall, they all saw me at the reception afterwards."

"I told you that's where they were," Sirius spoke up now, frustrated with the Auror who was questioning Lily. "I was invited to that same graduation, that's how I knew she'd be there."

Bellyah finally saw Lily and her mouth dropped open. "Oh Lily," she started to cry. "It's Lucy! She's been bitten!"

* * *

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	18. Chapter 18

_**I just want to thank those who review, I usually don't get the chance to respond to the reviews, but I read all of them and enjoy getting them.**_

_**Chapter 18:**_

A week after Dora's graduation, Lily Potter made her way through St. Mungo's. Bellyah had finally consented that Lily come to visit Lucy, she'd been pretty adamant about no one seeing her daughter injured. How she'd managed to keep this from the press Lily had no idea. With the Weird Sister's becoming more famous, at least one of the members was featured in a gossip rag every week, Lily had felt sure that Lucy's attack would have been front page news.

"Sirius? What are you doing here?"

Sirius sat up, he'd been lying on a bench, seemingly asleep. "Waiting to talk to Bellyah." He said; his voice groggy with sleep.

"Have you even been back to your house since Lucy was bitten?" Lily asked, speaking of Grimmauld Place, after he'd been pardoned the year before, he'd gotten his family's things as he was the only remaining living Black.

Sirius scowled at the mention of his house. "No, I haven't."

"Where in the world have you been staying?"

"Remus' or here,"

"I'm surprised they let you stay."

"Being an Auror has its perks." Sirius said, trying to wake up, "I made something up about how Greyback meant to kill her and he'd be back to finish the job, better have a security guard."

"You lied to the Healers?"

"I've been standing guard." Sirius defended himself weakly.

"You look about ready to fall over."

"I'll call in sick today." Sirius said, "I'm no good to Bellyah and Lucy sick."

"So you've told her you fancy her?" Lily asked, Sirius had nursed a crush on Bellyah since they met the year before when he'd been pardoned.

Sirius paused, "Not in so many words." He said carefully, "But I think the fact that I've slept outside Lucy's door for the past week says something, wouldn't you?" He shook his head. "How in the world I didn't notice her while I was in Hogwarts…."

"She was a third year Ravenclaw the year we graduated." Lily was amused, "even if you had noticed her, you wouldn't have done anything."

Sirius shook his head like a dog, trying to wake up. "I heard Bellyah moving around in Lucy's room about half an hour ago, so I'll go to Remus' and crash for the day."

Lily nodded and after a hug, they parted. Lily went into Lucy's room quietly. "Hey Bellyah." She whispered, upon seeing that Lucy was asleep.

"Hey Lily, thanks so much for visiting."

"No problem." Lily said, she set a bag on Lucy's bed. "Ariadne and Harry sent some gifts, they know Lucy's in the hospital, but they don't know what for, I wasn't sure if you wanted anyone to know or not."

Bellyah nodded and smiled thinly. "I don't mind if Harry and Ariadne know, because I know they've got their Uncle Moony, they won't treat Lucy any different. However I don't want many other people to know." There was a comfortable pause between the friends. "Is Sirius till out there?"

"No, he went to Remus' to crash for a few hours."

"I know he fancy's me." Bellyah spoke to Lily but looked to her daughter instead.

This didn't surprise Lily; Sirius wore his heart on his sleeve, she'd figured that Bellyah could tell Sirius' feelings for her. "He's been trying to get the courage to ask you out."

"If Lucy' hadn't been bitten, I would have said yes." Bellyah said quietly, "He and Lucy get along so well and he's funny and…" She trailed off shaking her head as she looked to her daughter. "But I can't date him, not with Lucy like this."

"Like what?"

"She's so young; she may not live through her first transformation." Bellyah whispered, "I may only have until the next full Moon with her."

"She's strong, she'll survive." Lily said quietly.

"I hope so." Bellyah whispered, "I can't lose her Lily, I can't."

* * *

Harry slurped his milk out of his bowl, both his sister and the baby sitter scowled "sorry." He said, not the least bit sorry.

"I finally decided what I want to do for my birthday." Ariadne announced, her birthday was in a week and Lily had been asking her daughter to figure out what she wanted to do to celebrate it. "Guess what I want to do?"

"Eat Mud Pies?" Harry asked.

"Ewwww." Ariadne pushed her breakfast away, no longer hungry. "That's gross Harry."

"What do you want to do for your birthday Ariadne?" Tabitha asked.

"I want to go to the Zoo."

Harry grabbed Ariadne's bowl and started spooning the rest of his sister's cereal into his mouth. "That's boring; we should go to a Quidditch game."

"I know we'll be going to a Quidditch game for your birthday Harry," Ariadne said, "so I want to do something different."

"I think that's a great idea," Tabitha said, "But I don't think there's a zoo near here."

"I checked." Ariadne pulled out a book, "There's one in Surrey, it's cool, it's got a reptile house." Harry was about to say something sarcastic when Ariadne spoke again, "We should get a box together to take Lucy when we go visit her in the hospital."

"It's been over a week since she went to St. Mungo's, Harry said, "Bellyah just let Mum see Lucy," Harry said, "Besides, I don't think that Lucy's really up for visitors. But I would like to visit her just in case-" he stopped mid sentence and shook his head slightly. "Well, I would like to visit her."

"Just in case what?" Ariadne asked, an eyebrow rising.

"Nothing." Harry shook his head again.

"Just in case what?" Ariadne asked again, this time more forcefully.

"Nothing." Harry said, more firmly.

"It doesn't sound like nothing." Ariadne replied.

"Ariadne," Harry was exasperated with his sister. "It's _nothing_."

"Harry James Potter." Ariadne said, putting a hand on her hip, "you tell me what you were thinking!"

"Fine." Harry snapped, fed up with his sister, "When all the Aurors were over here, I thought I overheard something about a werewolf attack, since Bellyah's not in the hospital, I'm guessing it was Lucy who was bitten."

"So?" Ariadne asked, "Lucy will be like Uncle Moony, what's the big deal?"

"The youngest child to survive a transformation was only seven." Harry said patiently, "Lucy's only five."

* * *

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	19. Chapter 19

_**Here's the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy it!**_

Alastor Moody was not in a good mood; Crouch was trying to get him to retire, he'd been trying to for the past five years. To be honest it was getting a bit annoying. He stormed downstairs as fast as his leg allowed, the new recruits were coming in today and he needed to see them.

There were five of them, four men, one female, they were lining up to duel with some junior Aurors, but there weren't enough Junior Aurors to go around. The one female was left without a partner and Mad-Eye quickly stepped up to her, her hair was violently pink and he tried not to grimace. He spoke four words to her, "wands at the ready."

The female lifted her wand, but instead of pointing it at him, she pointed it at herself, "Impervious." The spell enveloped her and then she turned her wand around to point it at him. He was taken aback, a recruit who actually knew a thing or two about defending herself? Yes defending the Wizarding world was important, but you couldn't do a very good job defending the Wizarding world if you were dead. He smile inwardly, maybe he'd actually like this recruit, he usually didn't.

Two days later, Alastor let himself into Crouch's office. "I'll retire a year from today if I can train the new recruit, Nymphadora Tonks." He announced.

* * *

"Mum, I want to visit Lucy." Harry and Ariadne were standing in the kitchen doorway.

"We'll have to check with Bellyah." Lily told her children.

"I overheard something about a werewolf attack, did Lucy get bitten?" Harry asked bluntly.

Lily sighed and turned to face her children again. If they switched eye colors, they could have been miniatures of her and James. "Yes, Lucy got bitten."

"Can we please go see Lucy at the hospital?" Harry asked.

"I'll have to check with Bellyah." Lily insisted. "But I'll ask her about it in the morning; I'm going back to St. Mungo's tomorrow."

"Okay." Harry said, "Let's go make Lucy more get well soon cards"

Ariadne and Harry left the kitchen and Lily turned back to the stove so that dinner didn't burn. Her children were stubborn, a trait they got from both her and James.

"Oh, Mum." Ariadne darted back into the kitchen; "I finally decided what I want to do for my birthday."

"What?"

"Go to the Zoo, I found one in Surrey."

"Sounds good, we can take the car, do you want to bring a friend?" Lily asked.

"No, I think it would be fun with just you Harry and I."

* * *

The next afternoon, Lily stepped inside the house, Harry was still doing his schoolwork and Ariadne was, by the sounds of it, upstairs.

"Hi Tabitha." Lily greeted the young woman who watched her children. "How have they been?"

"Good, as usual, Harry tried to gross Ariadne out by eating a sandwich with mustard, peanut butter, mayonnaise, spam, hot sauce, bacon and a chocolate frog,"

"And it was all put together on lightly toasted wheat bread." Harry spoke up. "I couldn't find the muggle camcorder we've got otherwise I would have filmed it like those chef shows you like to watch Mum."

"Why did you ruin bacon like that Harry?"

"It was pretty disgusting," Harry made a face, "But Ariadne wasn't even fazed by it, she took a couple of bites too." Harry looked furious with himself that his sister hadn't been grossed out.

"Ariadne!" Lily called up the stairs, "come down stairs please!"

Ariadne thundered down the stairs and jumped down the last few steps. "Yes Mum?" She asked.

"Bellyah said you can visit Lucy for twenty minutes on Saturday morning," Both Potter children cheered and Lily said, "About your birthday Ariadne, I wasn't able to get that particular day off, but how about we celebrate it this Saturday after we visit Lucy?"

"Sounds good." Ariadne grinned.

* * *

Saturday came and both Harry and Ariadne were excited to visit Lucy, they each had presents for her that they hoped would cheer her up.

Lily knew where Lucy's room was by then and she quickly led both children through the hospital.

"Bellyah," Lily greeted as she walked into Lucy's room.

"Hi Lily," Bellyah hugged her friend as Harry and Ariadne walked in. "Hi Harry, Hi Adi."

"Hi Bellyah." Harry replied, Ariadne was looking around at the hospital room, her eyes wide.

"Hi." Ariadne greeted Lucy who was staring at them with eyes as wide Galleons.

"Hi." She finally said back, her voice small.

"How are you feeling?" Lily asked, seeing that her children were a little shy.

"Better, I got my bandages changed this morning." Lucy held up her arm. "Now I've got pretty colors."

"Did you ask for the pink?" Ariadne spoke up now.

"Yeah." Lucy said.

Harry, Ariadne and Lucy gradually got more comfortable but soon it was time to go, as a healer needed to do something.

"Can we come back to visit?" Ariadne asked, she looked from Bellyah to Lucy and Lucy nodded excitedly.

"Please Mummy?" The five year asked.

"The children visiting hours are strict, the next time they could come would be Tuesday after 4 pm."

"Please Mum?" Both Harry and Ariadne spoke as one, turning to Lily.

"As long as it's okay with you." Lily told Bellyah and Lucy.

"I don't mind if they come back." Bellyah said.

"Yay!" Lucy said, bouncing as she still sat on the bed.

"We should let the healer do her work." Lily told her children, "we'll be back on Tuesday." She told Bellyah and Lucy.

"Bye!"

They left St. Mungo's and were soon on their way to the zoo. The trip took longer then anticipated and it was afternoon by the time they got there. "We only have time to see some of the animals today." Lily apologized to her children, "Ariadne, we can come back another time to see the rest of the zoo."

"That's okay," Ariadne said, she pointed to part of the map she'd gotten at the front. "Can we go to the Reptile house?"

"Sure." The small family went to the reptile house; Ariadne was looking at the largest snake when a fat boy waddled up to her, "Dad, look at this snake!" The boy was excited and Ariadne moved so his Dad could come up to the viewing area. "Oohhh, look it says it's from Brazil!" The boy read from the sign. "It would be so cool to live in Brazil."

"It would not." A little girl with blonde hair stepped up to him. "Besides, it's never been to Brazil, it says it was bred in captivity."

"What do you know Carrie?" The fat boy asked, glaring at his sister.

"Well, Dudley I know how to read." The girl explained, with an air of being extremely patient. Ariadne couldn't help but giggle, both the girl and the boy looked over, the boy glaring and the girl, questioning.

"My brother does the same thing," Ariadne said by way of explanation. "It's sometimes burdensome having a dolt for a brother." The girl looked delighted and moved to Ariadne.

"I'm Carrie Dursley, what's your name?"

"Ariadne Potter."

"Potter?" a couple of adults turned, one of them a tall blonde woman with a lot of neck. "Is your mother Lily Potter?"

Lily walked up, she'd been a couple of cages away and had heard the question. "Yes, I'm Li-" she halted, her mouth dropping open. "Petunia?" She asked.

* * *

_Please review! I've got a forum for this story now, you should find the link in my profile. :)_


	20. Chapter 20

_**Here's chapter 20, and I got an anonymous review for the last chapter asking ow old Ariadne was, she is currently 9 years old, she just turned 9 and she will start Hogwarts when Harry starts his 3rd year. I guess I wasn't clear enough in the last chapter when I said a 5 year old was speaking that it was Lucy who was speaking. Here's chapter 20, please review. There is a new poll on my profile, go and check it out, plus there's a forum for this story you can go check it out and post questions and such, I'll be posting a new thread today in it.  
**_

Ariadne looked around the guest bedroom, she and Harry had been told to clean it before Carrie got there, their cousin had just turned ten and was a witch as well. Since school was out for the summer, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were sending Carrie to their house so she could be around witches and wizards. Mum was on her way to pick her up the muggle way, so she wouldn't be back home for another couple of hours.

Harry glanced at the calendar on the way for what felt like the millionth time to Ariadne. "Why do you keep glancing at the calendar?" She asked. "That's not going to make your birthday come any faster."

"Full Moon's in two nights," Harry said quietly.

"So? there's always a full moon…." Ariadne trailed off as she got what Harry was thinking. "Lucy." She said, "Her first transformation."

"Yeah."

"She'll be okay." Ariadne said, "Remember, Bellyah said the healers told her she healed really fast from the bite."

"The transformation is different from being bitten." Harry said, with an air of patience with his sister.

"I know, but it's hard for children to live through the bite." Ariadne said, "if they live through the bite they might have more of a chance of living through the transformation."

Harry shook his head, "I asked Uncle Moony about what it was like, transforming, he said it was really hard because it's different then Dora transforming, since he's transforming into another species it's hard, we only have two legs, werewolves have four, and some of their organs are in different places then they are in humans." Harry explained. "The youngest child to have survived their transformation was only seven, Lucy's five."

"I don't want to think about that." Ariadne said, "let's make a sign for Carrie, welcoming her to our house."

"Race you to the art closet!" Harry said, darting out of the guest room.

Ariadne raced him downstairs, but Harry had too much of a head start and he reached the closet first.

"What are you kids doing?" Tabitha asked, she was reading from a book from the living room shelf.

"Making Carrie a welcome sign." Ariadne said, both she and Harry got some art supplies out and began to work on their own signs.

They worked hard and by the time that Lily pulled up in a muggle car, both children had made several signs, a couple of them they both put on the front door, and the other ones they put on Carrie's bedroom door.

"I'm home!" Lily called as both she and Carrie carried a bag or two into the house.

"Mummy!" Ariadne greeted, she and Harry came from upstairs. "Hi Carrie."

"Hi Ariadne." Carrie said she smiled nervously; Lily gently placed a hand on her niece's shoulder.

"Let's go up to your room Carrie."

Carrie, Harry, Ariadne and Lily went upstairs, "Here's your room, if you like to read, I've got a bunch of books you can borrow." Ariadne said.

"Do you need my help unpacking Carrie?" Lily asked as she sat the bag she'd been carrying onto the floor by the dresser.

"No, but thank you Aunt Lily, I'll be fine."

"If you need my help, just ask, my room is the one by the laundry nook."

Carrie nodded, "Thank you," she said.

"Let's let Carrie unpack in privacy." Lily said. The Potters left Carrie's room to let the young girl unpack in peace. Carrie closed the door and then turned to her bags. She opened up a backpack but didn't pull anything to out; finally she sagged onto the bed and started to cry.

* * *

Ariadne knocked quietly on Carrie's door, her cousin had gotten there earlier that day and she was excited to get to know the girl. "Yes?"

"It's Ariadne, I wanted to talk."

The door opened and Ariadne went into Carrie's room. "You haven't unpacked much." She noticed, her eyebrows furrowing, only a couple of books were on the bookshelf and a picture was on the dresser.

"It's kind of boring unpacking by myself." Carrie shrugged.

"If you want, I could help." Ariadne suggested.

"That'd be nice." Carrie said, she reached into a backpack and pulled out another few books, "any books you find can go on the book shelf, I'll arrange them how I want them later." She said.

Ariadne opened a bag and found clothes. "What about pants?"

The girls started to unpack Carrie's things, but took a slight detour with a picture album that the ten year old had brought.

"Who is that?" Ariadne asked, she pointed to a man in a picture.

"That's my Dad when he and Mum married, he looks a lot different now. He acts a lot different now."

"How does he act different?"

"He said this morning." Tears welled up in Carrie's eyes. "That I wasn't welcome back in his home."

"What?" Ariadne asked, she'd never heard of a father saying that to his child.

"He said he didn't hold with the nonsense I was getting mixed up in."

"What nonsense?" Ariadne was confused.

"Being a witch, but I can't stop it!" Carrie said, "I can't stop being a witch any more then Dudley can stop being a git."

"So you're here for good?"

"Mum said she'd see if she could change Dad's mind but if he's acting like that, then I don't want to be around him after the summer's over."

"I wouldn't want to either." Ariadne agreed.

"Let's unpack some more stuff." Carrie said, snapping the album shut and shoving it on a shelf.

It was as they were hanging up Carrie's pants that Lily stuck her head in. "I'm going grocery shopping, do you girls want anything in particular for dinner tonight?"

"Carrie can pick, she's new." Ariadne offered, "as long as it's not one of Harry's concoctions, I'm fine with anything."

"Can we have Pizza?" Carrie asked.

"Sure." Lily said, "What kind is your favorite?"

"Pepperoni," Carrie said, "with extra cheese."

"Pepperoni with extra cheese it is." Lily said, she turned to leave the room but paused, "What about drinks?"

"Peach soda is my favorite."

"You know I like punch, Mum." Ariadne said, she turned back to Carrie, "Did you bring anything to put on your walls?"

"Just a couple of posters," Carrie said, "Let's get them out and see where they look best."

Lily left the girls in Carrie's room and poked her head into Harry's room, "Hey Harry, I'm getting pizza for dinner, what do you want to drink?"

"Can I have a pumpkin juice?" Harry asked, the Potter house was a no sweets zone unless they were celebrating something, and since Pumpkin juice had such a high amount of sugar in it that Lily counted the drink as a sweet. It was nearly Harry's birthday and the kids hadn't had pumpkin juice since Christmas.

"Just one, I'll get enough for everyone." Lily said, she went downstairs and used the muggle phone to call for a delivery pizza, after getting the money ready she told Tabitha she was going out, Pizza was coming and here was the money for the delivery pizza.

She left and quickly went to Diagon Alley, after buying the Pumpkin juice she went to a muggle shopping mart she knew was close by and bought everything else they'd need for dinner. After what had happened at Petunia's she figured the girl could use a night just having fun with her new family.

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	21. Chapter 21

_**Here's chapter 21, my schedule at work changed, so I'll be posting chapters on either Tuesday or Wednesday from now on. Enjoy!**_

_**Chapter 21: **_

Bellyah Anderson walked around the small home that she and her daughter shared. The two of them had moved in nearly four years before when Lucy was eighteen months old. She'd met Lily Potter the next day when her friend had brought her children over to welcome them to the neighborhood and deliver a loaf of banana bread. Harry had been six at the time, and Ariadne four. The two mothers had quickly become friends. Although they were single for different reasons, Lily because of a death, and Bellyah because of divorce they were both glad to have a friend who knew how difficult it was to be a single mom.

They had grown close over the past four years, and now Bellyah saw Lily as her closest friend, normally she would be relying on Lily to get her though everything that she (and Lucy) had been through for the past month, but she wasn't. She couldn't bring Lily into this, she knew Lily had a friend who was a werewolf but this was something that she needed to work through alone.

A knock on the door made her change direction. "Sirius?" She was surprised at the man's appearance on her doorstep. Besides, it was early morning, didn't Sirius have work?

"I know you might want to be alone, but I just wanted to drop by and see if you needed anything."

"Thank you for the offer, but I can't think of anything." Bellyah said; her response immediate.

"Bellyah," The look on Sirius' face told her he didn't believe what she'd said.

"Not unless you've got a crystal ball that tells me Lucy survives tonight." Bellyah amended her earlier no.

Sirius shook his head, "I don't have that, but I do have something better."

"Something better?" Disbelief was obvious in Bellyah's tone

Sirius held up the bags that were sitting at his feet. "I'll show you, where's Lucy?"

"Her room, she's still sleeping."

"No I'm not." Lucy said quietly, the pink bandages were faded now, but still on Lucy's bite.

"Hi Lucy Goose." Bellyah hid a smile at the nickname Sirius had given her daughter months before. "I've got some stuff for you." Sirius said. He held up the bags so Lucy could see them.

"What stuff?"

"Do you mind if I come in and show her?" Sirius asked Bellyah.

"Sure." Bellyah moved so Sirius could come in.

"What presents did you get me?" Lucy asked, the group of three moved into the parlour and Sirius set down the bags.

"Some magazines for you to read when you're bored." Sirius pulled out a couple of children's magazines, she recognized a couple of them as wizarding magazines for children, but some of them must have been muggle magazines for she didn't recognize the titles. He pulled out a chess board and a packet of wizarding chess players.

"I also bought you some chocolate; make sure it's okay with your mother before you eat some."

"OOooh, this looks like good chocolate." Lucy said quietly.

As Sirius continued to pull items out of the bags, Bellyah could see what he'd done. He'd brought items over where, if they used them today, they would provide memories for Bellyah to look back on with fondness if Lucy didn't make it through her transformation.

Hours later, Bellyah made an early dinner; she and Lucy were expected at the Ministry where she'd make her first, and possibly only transformation. If she lived though the first transformation she'd continue to have to spend full Moon's there until she was nine years old.

Sirius accompanied her to the Ministry and followed her to the department that regulated dangerous creatures. They signed in and a woman came to the front office and introduced herself to Lucy. "My name is Mia." She greeted, "I help children who are werewolves, just like you."

"I'm just a werewolf part of the time; it's not everything I am." Lucy said quietly.

"Well, I'll take you back to where you're going to be transforming." Mia said, she abruptly took Lucy's hand in hers and began walking through a door that said "Employee's only."

Bellyah began to follow her but Mia stopped her "You can't come with her." she said, quickly, then she led Lucy away.

Bellyah stopped in the middle of the office, Sirius stepped up to her, "She's a five year old girl who wants to learn to read, not a dangerous animal." Bellyah said tightly.

"I know." Sirius' voice was quiet.

Bellyah sat in one of the chairs "What do I do until morning?" Her question was rhetorical, she looked up at Sirius, who was still standing beside her. "What do I do until it's time for me to find out if my child lived through the night?"

* * *

Early the next morning Sirius Black woke slowly, he could feel Bellyah curled up beside him and for a moment he was confused, why had Bellyah spent the night at…then he remembered. Lucy's transformation. They'd come back to Grimmauld Place as Bellyah hadn't wanted to be alone.

He woke Bellyah and they both quickly got ready to go to the Ministry. They got there in record time and were soon meeting Mia at the front office of the Department of the Regulation of Dangerous Creatures.

"Did she survive?" Bellyah gripped Sirius' hand in hers.

"She is currently alive, but we are preparing her for St. Mungo's Life Flight. Only time will tell at this point."

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	22. Chapter 22

_**So I had an unexpected day off of work so I decided to post another chapter. Enjoy!**_

_**Chapter 22:**_

Lily could hear the Doctor Who theme song and she peeked into the living room, Harry, Carrie and Ariadne were lying on the floor, they had pillows and blankets around them and they kept their eyes glued to the TV screen. Full moon had been the night before and Lily hadn't heard anything from Bellyah, she wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"Susan's got to get back to the City! She's got to get the medicine to the Doctor and her teachers." Carrie's voice traveled into the kitchen. Lily could hear a quiet voice, probably Ariadne's answering Carrie.

She peeked out her kitchen window, it overlooked into Bellyah's kitchen. Nothing, no movement. She walked back into the parlour as Snow walked in, he curled up with Carrie and Ariadne and both girls moved so they were using the dog as a pillow.

Lily watched the opening theme to Dr. Who begin on the same tape and she was suddenly glad that Harry and Ariadne were fans of the show; they'd spent much of the day describing the show to their cousin who had never seen it. It had made the day bearable for Lily, she didn't know what she would have done if all three children were pestering her about how Lucy was doing. Finally she sent a patronus to Sirius, maybe he would know. She got a response about ten minutes later, Sirius' patronus, a dog bounded in and spoke. "Lucy is in St. Mungo's in critical condition, we're taking it hour by hour." And with that, it disappeared. She poked her head into the parlour again. More time then she'd thought had passed and The Doctor was telling Susan he'd have to put her teachers off the ship. She smiled faintly at the somewhat cheesy acting and decided to wait until the end of the episode to tell the kids about Lucy.

Soon, the ending theme song was playing and she paused the tape. "I just heard from Uncle Sirius," she told the three. "Lucy made it through the full moon…." She was about to say that Lucy was in St. Mungo's in critical condition but both Ariadne and Harry cheered, drowning out her next phrase, even Carrie who had never met Lucy said "yay!"

"But…" Lily raised her voice and got Harry, Carrie and Ariadne's attention. "She's in St. Mungo's…."

"I've never heard of St. Mungo's." Carrie interrupted, "is that another wizard thing?"

"It's the wizarding hospital." Lily said. "Lucy is in critical condition."

"Let's make Lucy some gifts, Mum, can we stay up later tonight?" Ariadne asked.

"Your bedtime is 9:30 tonight." Lily allowed, she smiled as Ariadne went to the art closet and got out some art supplies. The kids abandoned the TV set and went into the kitchen to work on art projects for their neighbor.

* * *

Sirius sat back in the cold hard chairs in the St. Mungo's waiting room with Bellyah; they had been allowed to see Lucy for less then an hour earlier in the day and were waiting on the healer to come out to the waiting room to give them an update.

Bellyah sighed and although he wasn't looking towards her, Sirius could tell she glanced his way. "What is it?" Sirius asked.

"Listen, about last night…."

"Yeah?"

"I don't normally do that; force my friends to put me up for the night."

"You didn't force me." Sirius said kindly. "I was glad to help."

"I just didn't want to be alone, and you were there."

"I understand." Sirius resisted the urge to grab Bellyah's hand. "Maybe once Lucy's feeling better, you can both come over for dinner at Grimmauld Place,"

"I couldn't impose…" Bellyah began.

"It's not an imposition." Sirius said, "I'm inviting you over."

Bellyah sighed heavily and then finally turned to look at Sirius, "You know me, I don't normally act like this, Lucy getting bitten has really thrown me for a loop."

"That's understandable." Sirius said, "What about Lucy's father, does he know about her…"

"He's probably the cause." Bellyah laughed without humor. "He cheated on me and left Lucy without a dad, he must have pissed Greyback off. Of course what Greyback didn't realize is that Ian doesn't care about Lucy anymore, so biting Lucy was in vain."

Sirius' eyes widened as he heard what Bellyah was saying, he'd assumed that Bellyah's ex had abandoned her after the divorce but he'd never heard exactly what had happened between the two of them.

"Can we use a time turner to go back in time to the day before Lucy got bitten?" There was a long pause before Bellyah spoke again, tears clogging her voice. "I know we can't, but that would be nice."

A healer stepped out into the waiting room. "Lucy Anderson?"

Bellyah and Sirius stood and approached the Healer. Bellyah didn't realize that she was gripping Sirius hand. "Is my daughter all right?"

"We've managed to stabilize her, but we'll be taking it day by day for the next few days." The Healer said. Sirius and Bellyah hugged, Bellyah crying with joy. "Your daughter is a very strong little girl."

* * *

_Please review!_


	23. Chapter 23

_**Here's my scheduled day off and Harry's Birthday! Happy birthday Harry! It seemed fitting to post this chapter today.**_

_**Chapter 23:**_

The last day of July 1991 dawned with a bright, hot sun. Muggle radios said it was "the hottest day this year." Everyone was feeling the heat, especially a now eleven-year old boy in Rowena's Village. Harry Potter was sitting at the kitchen table trying to do the schoolwork his mother had set out for him.

"I don't like this," Harry muttered. "It's the bloody summertime, it's my birthday, we should be out playing, not doing schoolwork. It's the hottest day of the year, we should be doing something to keep us cool."

Ariadne murmured in agreement, her mind still on the summer work Lily had assigned her. She glanced up, lost in thought for a moment, she couldn't think of anything to put on her paper. "Hmmm, she said. "If Kerri has to be to school by 8:30; and it takes her five minutes to brush her teeth, ten minutes to shower, twenty minutes to dry her hair, ten minutes to eat breakfast and twenty minutes to walk to school. What time will she need to get up?"

"7:20," Harry muttered the answer to her. Ariadne grinned and started to write down the answer on her paper but something outside the window had caught her eye.

"Does that look like an owl?" she asked, pointing to a speck in the sky that was growing bigger and bigger with each second.

Harry looked out the window. "Yeah, it does!" he said excitedly, abandoning his homework and taking an excited vigil by the window. "I hope it's not the Weasley's Errol," Harry said, gripping the counter top. Harry was so busy trying to figure out who the owl was from he didn't even feel the pencil Ariadne threw at him; however, he did hear her angry comment.

"And WHY not?" she demanded, throwing an eraser at her brother, trying to get him to turn around.

"Because," Harry said, oblivious to the papers, quills and the empty inkbottles Ariadne was sending his way. Finally she got him, she tossed the math book she had been using, and it landed on his hand with a loud thunk.

Harry whirled around, his eyes flashing. "Ariadne!" he snapped "It's the most important moment of my life and you have to throw stuff at me?" he questioned.

Ariadne glared at her brother "Why don't you want the letter to be from the Weasley's?"

"Because I want it to be my Hogwarts letter!" Harry snapped. "I've been waiting for it for eleven years!" he turned back to the window, "YES!" he cried. The owl was closer now, and it was obvious that it wasn't Errol, the Weasley's old bird.

Lily came in and noticed her son fidgeting near the window. "Harry, why aren't you doing your school…" she started, but Harry shushed her and pointed out the window.

"Does that look like a Hogwarts bird?" he asked.

Lily took a closer look. "Yeah," she said calmly. "It does."

Ariadne grinned; she thought she could see what her mother was trying to play, now if only Harry took the bait...

"How can you be so calm?" Harry asked, watching as the bird flew closer to the window of their house.

_YES_! Ariadne silently cheered.

"It could be a letter from Professor Dumbledore; we have been corresponding," Lily said, still calm, although Ariadne thought she saw the hint of a smile at the edge of her mother's lips.

"It's my Hogwarts letter, I know it is!" Harry said; his head was almost sticking out the window now as he stared at the coming bird with growing anticipation.

"I don't know Harry," Lily said, "My last letter from Professor Dumbledore came at about this time of day, and it does look like his owl."

Ariadne got up and pretended to study the bird. "Yeah it does Mum," She agreed, not having a clue as to what Professor Dumbledore's owl looked like, but wanting to needle Harry all the same.

Harry whirled around, nearly hitting his head on the open window ledge. "What?" he gasped, "I-is that really Professor Dumbledore's bird?" he asked, his jaw going slack. "I thought he used Fawkes?"

"No, he's been favoring a big tawny owl lately," she said, taking a good look at the owl to be able to describe it. "It looks like it's his," Lily said, now turning away in an effort to keep Harry from seeing the smile on her face.

"Mum, you better not be kidding…" Harry started.

The owl suddenly swooped into the kitchen, landing next to Harry, holding its leg out to the eleven year old. Harry untied the letter from the owl and glanced at the heading

Mr. Harry Potter  
2nd Bedroom  
Potter Household  
Rowena's Village

Harry's mouth dropped open and he whirled on his mother "MUM!" he yelled, but he was laughing as well.

"Just open your letter Harry," Lily laughed. He ripped open the letter and read it, his grin growing bigger and bigger every second. When he looked up there was no doubt that this was his Hogwarts letter. "When can we go shopping Mum?" he asked. Before Lily could answer though, he started doing a war dance and dancing around the kitchen. "I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm going to Hogwarts!" he chanted, dancing around the kitchen counter, behind the table and back in front of his mum and sister again.

"How about we go shopping in a few days?" she asked, "We don't have time to get everything today, and I've got work tomorrow," she said.

Harry nodded. "Okay," he said, grinning. He looked so much like James that Lily's heart ached for a moment. For all rights, James should be here to hug Harry now that he'd gotten his Hogwarts letter. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Ariadne stomping, she was headed towards the back garden and she huffed as she threw a look over her shoulder at her older brother.

Lily suddenly realized that she should have seen this coming, Ariadne being jealous of Harry getting his Hogwarts letter first. She glanced behind her, where Harry was now scribbling onto a piece of parchment, probably writing either Remus or Sirius about getting his Hogwarts letter. Leaving her son and niece in the house, she followed her daughter into the back garden.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, sitting down next to her.

"Harry keeps going on and on about his Hogwarts letter," Ariadne said. "I need to concentrate on my homework and I can't if he keeps talking and talking."

"He got his Hogwarts letter less than five minutes ago," Lily said. "Of course he's going to talk about it Ariadne, he's excited. He's waited for that letter ever since Dora's graduation in May."

"Well, if I had a younger sibling and I got my Hogwarts letter I'd never rub in that I'm going to Hogwarts earlier than them," Ariadne said and it was then that Lily saw the problem. Harry and Ariadne had never spent more than two days apart, not because they wanted to stay together, it was simply because they had never had the chance.

While Harry and Ariadne were both outgoing kids and they each had their own small set of friends, most of their playmates were mesmerized with the fact that they actually knew the Harry Potter who had vanquished Voldemort or that they were playing with Ariadne Potter, the sister of a hero.

"No matter how mad you are right now I bet you're going to miss Harry when he leaves," Lily said.

Ariadne shook her head furiously "No," she said defiantly, but Lily thought she could hear her daughter's voice break just a little.

"I'm going to miss him too," Lily said, she knew Ariadne would miss Harry. Those two were closer than she'd ever seen any siblings, even twins. The Weasley twins had nothing on Harry and Adi. "And it's not like you're not going to know what's going on, Harry will write."

"Yeah right," Ariadne snorted. "If he remembers, and then we'll spend twenty minutes trying to decipher his hand writing."

Lily smiled at Ariadne's comment, her nine-year-old was right; Harry's handwriting left a lot to be desired, especially if he was excited and in a hurry.

"We can always write to his head of house and ask how he's doing," Lily suggested.

Ariadne finally looked up at Lily and then Lily saw that her daughter was trying to hold back tears. "I don't want Harry to go, he's my best friend," she wailed, and started to cry.

Lily held her daughter close. "You know what?" she suggested.

Ariadne looked up. "What?" her small voice was choked with tears.

"We are going to have a party, it'll be a combined party partly because Harry's going to Hogwarts and partly because you…" Lily paused for a moment, thinking for something that Ariadne would enjoy doing because Harry would be away at Hogwarts. "You are now half of an only sibling," Lily finished.

Ariadne looked confused "What?" she asked, looking at her mother like she was crazy.

"What I mean is, once Harry goes away to Hogwarts you'll be the only child at home, so you get some special things, like…" Lily thought again. "You get the bathroom all to yourself."

Ariadne grinned; she could now see the upside of having Harry go to Hogwarts.

"And since Harry will be gone at Hogwarts I'll be able to work with you more on your maths," Lily said. Ariadne nodded in agreement she'd always had trouble in math, something Harry excelled in. Lily had an inspiration. "And since Harry won't be here I'll have more time to work with you on re-doing your room!" Ariadne had been after Lily for months, asking her to change her room around, not just change the paint on the walls, but get some new furniture and posters.

Ariadne jumped up at that, scattering her school supplies. "When can we plan the party Mummy? Right now?" she asked, all tears forgotten.

"Sure, and you don't have to work on your schoolwork until after the party, that way we can plan it really well," Lily said.

Ariadne raced inside, not even minding the heat of the day as she went into the living room to tell her brother about what soon came to be known as "the party of the century."

* * *

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	24. Chapter 24

_**Here's chapter 24! Hope you enjoy it!**_

Lily and Harry quietly entered Ollivander's. All of Harry's school supplies had been bought except for his wand. "Mum, I feel like I've entered a very strict library." Harry's voice was quiet.

Ollivander's voice made them both jump. "Good afternoon."

"Hello." Harry said, his voice loud in the quiet shop.

"I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Harry Potter." Harry wasn't surprised that Ollivander knew who he was; he'd been approached by many witches and Wizards that day. "It seems like just yesterday that your mother and father were in my shop buying their first wands."

"It seems like yesterday to me as well." Lily spoke up now; I've still got my first wand." She pulled it out and Ollivander took it, holding it gently.

"Ten and a quarter inch…." He was staring at it, "Willow with Unicorn hair core."

"That's right." Lily said, "Quite good for charms."

"Swishy." Ollivander was still staring at the wand, he waved it and a bird flew out.

"Cool!" Harry breathed excitedly.

"Your father on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand, eleven inches, very pliable. Excellent for transfiguration." He chuckled to himself and then pulled out a tape measure with silver markings. "Which one is your wand arm?"

"I'm right handed."

The tape measure began to measure Harry, and Ollivander spoke. "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, Phoenix tail feathers and Dragon heartstring. No two Ollivander's wands are the same…."

Harry tuned out what Ollivander was saying as he watched the old man flit about his shop and pull down boxes.

"All right, try this one, Beechwood, and Dragon Heartstring, nine inches."

Harry took it and foolishly gave it a wave. A load of wand boxes suddenly fell from the shelves. Ollivander waved his own wand and the boxes went back on to the shelves. "Apparently not." Ollivander said.

Harry tried wands for what seemed to be hours, Mum finally had to send a Patronus to Uncle Remus who was watching Ariadne and Carrie to tell him not to worry. Finally though, Ollivander gave Harry a long, calculating look. "I wonder…" he said slowly. He then left both Lily and Harry in the front of the shop as he went into the back, they could both hear him rummaging around in the back and Harry turned to Lily. "Mum, is he completely…" He gestured towards his head. "He seems to talk to himself a lot."

"That's just the way he is Harry, from what I gather, he is a very good wizard."

Ollivander came out again, carrying an old worn looking box. "This is an unusual combination, holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches."

Harry took the wand, waved it like he had so many other wands, but this time, sparks few out the end and a sudden warmth ran through his fingers. Lily clapped and Harry jumped for joy "Yes!" He cried happily.

"Bravo! Bravo!" Ollivander began to wrap up Harry's wand as he began muttering to himself once more. "Curious, simply curious."

"Sorry, what's curious?"

"I remember each wand I ever sold Mr. Potter, every wand." Ollivander took in a breath. "And it so happens that the phoenix that gave the tail feather for your wand, gave one other. Just one other. I find it very curious that you should be destined for this wand…." He gave the now wrapped box to Harry and Lily got out some money. "When its brother gave you that scar."

_***page break***_

The phone rang in the Potter house and Carrie Dursley quickly answered it. "Hello, this is the Potters."

"Dearie?" Carrie was surprised to hear her mother's voice on the line.

"Hi Mum."

"Hello dear, I've got some news." Carrie's mother seemed to be choosing her words with care. "Is Lily there?"

"No, she had to take Harry shopping for his school stuff." Carrie said, "She said she'd be back in time for dinner."

"All right, I'll call back later and talk with her, how are you?"

Nearly an hour later, Lily and Harry came home to find Carrie still on the phone. "Harry, Ariadne and I have Dr. Who marathons every week." She was saying, the noise of two people walking in made her look up, "Oh, Mum, Aunt Lily's here, she and Harry just got back." She directed her next words to Lily. "Mum says she has news."

Lily set the packages down and then said, "Carrie, please help Harry take his school things upstairs to his room."

"Okay." Carrie said, she spoke into the phone. "Mum, Aunt Lily will talk next, I've gotta help Harry take his school stuff upstairs. I love you."

"I love you too darling." Petunia sounded wistful and Carrie quickly handed the phone to Lily, grabbing the packages her Aunt had set down, Carrie quickly helped Harry upstairs with the rest of his school things. As they were going up the stairs, both children heard Lily say "She's upstairs Petunia, what's up?"

Was something wrong? Carrie and Harry locked eyes and Harry jerked his head towards his room. They quickly went upstairs and dumped their packages on the bed in Harry's room. Then Harry motioned to the hall table where another phone was, he quietly took the phone off its hook and both children were able to listen in on the conversation between Petunia and Lily.

"He's being completely unreasonable. He gave me an ultimatum; he said it was her or him and Dudley." Petunia said. Harry guessed that the he Petunia was speaking of, was Carrie's father.

"And?" Lily spoke quietly. Faintly Harry could hear Ariadne saying something to Uncle Moony; they were both in her room.

"I can't say good bye to both my children Lily, I'm between a rock and a hard place. Dudley doesn't like what Carrie can do, but at least he's not as bad as Vernon is."

"I'll be glad to keep her as long as necessary." Lily said.

Harry thought he saw Ariadne creeping towards his room but he ignored it, as the conversation was more interesting.

"I'm trying to see if there's a way I can file for divorce and keep custody of both, but since I have no job, it's proving difficult to find ways to pay for it."

"I might know of a wizarding lawyer that can help, since it involves a child who is a wizard, they should be involved."

"I know once I get Dudley away from Vernon he'll be better towards Carrie, it's just getting him away that's the problem. He's asking me to choose between my children Lily, I can't."

"I understand." The conversation continued but neither Harry nor Carrie paid much attention to it. What would this mean for Carrie?

Harry finally hung up the phone when Uncle Moony walked out of Ariadne's room, she suddenly looked like she had something to hide and Uncle Moony was hiding a smile.

"I won't tell your mother and Aunt about you listening in on the conversation." Uncle Moony said.

"Thanks." Carrie said dully.

Lily appeared at the bottom of the stairs and called up. "Who wants pizza for dinner?"

* * *

Later that night, Ariadne went into her room and ginned as she saw the pile of books on her bed. Earlier, while Carrie and Harry had been listening to a phone call between Mum and Aunt Petunia, she'd snuck into Harry's room and grabbed his books, she'd managed to convince Uncle Remus to make copies for her and then she'd deposited the originals back into Harry's room.

She flipped open _Magical Drafts and Potions_ and began to read.

* * *

_Please review!_


	25. Chapter 25

_**Sorry it took so long to post this chapter, I've had a very busy couple of weeks and I was stuck on this chapter as well. I finally got it polished though, hope you all enjoy!**_

_**Quick note: please pay attention to the dates!**_

_August 2000_

A young wizard walked into Flourish and Blotts, he and his family were going to America on vacation and his mother had told him to get a book to read on the journey.

"_The Potter Family and the Philosopher's Stone."_ He mouthed the words to himself as he read the title of a book in the 'new releases' shelf. Picking it up, he thumbed through it, it looked pretty interesting, so he took it up to the clerk to purchase it. He was stopped however, by a crowd of women. Several of them were making purchases and he waited for his turn. They looked familiar but the boy tried not to stare, his mother had said it was rude. Several of the women had red hair, and one of them said "Susan, do you think he'll propose soon?"

"I hope so." The woman named Susan said, "I'm getting a little tired of waiting, to be honest." She turned to the red head that had spoken to her. "What about you, do you see a proposal in your future?"

"Yes." The woman looked eerily familiar where had he seen her before? "But he won't propose until he's got a ring and we haven't decided on one yet."

"Maybe we'll get to have a double wedding." Susan said. "If we time it right, I mean."

The other woman laughed. "I would love that, but it would really piss my brother off."

"Which is exactly why you like the idea so much." A woman with brown hair joined the conversation.

"What can I say?" The line moved forward, "The good thing about being the youngest for so long is that I've got the annoying little sister part down pat. I will be teaching the baby to be the annoying little sister, however, if it is a girl."

"When's she due again?" The boy noticed that there was a woman with pink hair in the group. She looked like she was about to have a baby as well.

"This week." Was the reply. "Once I get home, I'll be staying close to the floo as Mum wants me there for the birth."

"Good idea." They group of women finally left and the young wizard was able to purchase his book and leave.

_**September 1991:**_  
"Let's go!" Harry yelled; he was standing in front of the front door, waiting for Ariadne and Lily to come out. It was September first and the Hogwarts express was bound to leave in a little over two hours.

"We're coming," Lily called from the kitchen as she and Ariadne came out. Lily had her purse in one hand and Ariadne's arm in the other. Out of habit, she looked around for Carrie, "Where's Carrie?" she asked her children.

"Carrie went back to Surrey, Mum, remember?" Harry reminded Lily.

"Oh that's right. I'm so used to her being here."

"Me too." Ariadne said, "can we make a playdate so Carrie and I could play soon?"

"Sure, once we get back, I'll ring up Petunia and see when she and Carrie are free, with the divorce starting, and the move, they may not be able to meet us soon."

"Okay." Ariadne said quietly.

They quickly went out to the car and were soon on their way to Kings Cross. They got there nearly an hour early and Lily quickly guided her children into the busy station. She gripped Ariadne's hand as they walked though the station. Lily couldn't help but smile as she and her children approached the platform entrance; it had been years since she'd seen it. As she and her children walked up however, they could see that there was a small family standing there. "But that makes no sense." A girl was speaking; she was a first year by the looks of it. "Here's platform nine and there's platform ten, but where's platform nine and three quarters?"

"I'm sure I can help with that." Lily politely interrupted the conversation. The family turned in surprise and Lily kept talking, "You're going to Hogwarts, dear?" She spoke to the girl.

"Yes." She said. "It's my first year."

"How did you get your acceptance letter?" Lily asked, needing to know if the family was muggle-born or not, she was willing to bet that they were, but she needed to make sure. Maybe they were from America and didn't know how to get to the English school.

"A Professor McGonagall came in March and told us Maya was a witch." The father spoke now; he motioned to his daughter as he spoke her name.

"Well, I'm afraid muggles aren't allowed onto the platform." Lily said, apologetically, "You'll have to say your good byes here. I'll tell you how to get onto the platform so that you can say goodbye to your family alone." She spoke to Maya again.

"Thank you." Maya said.

"What you do is run straight at the wall between platform's 9 and ten, Harry." She turned to her son, "You go first and I'll come along behind you."

Maya and her family moved so that Harry could have some space, he then ran at the platform and soon disappeared into it. "If you'd like, I'll make sure she gets onto the train all right, my name is Lily Potter by the way." She spoke to Maya's parents.

"We are Kenneth and Rose Granger; these are our children, Maya, Senaida and Gareth." Rose Granger motioned to each child in turn. It would be wonderful for you to look after Maya once she's on the platform." She then bent to give Maya a hug and Lily guided her daughter through the platform entrance. Harry was staring at the Hogwarts Express, Ariadne joined him and Lily glanced around the station, very few people were there this early and she saw Amelia Bones across the station, saying good bye to a young girl.

Lily made a mental note to say hello later, as Maya ran through the entrance. Maya joined Harry and Ariadne as they continued to stare at the train.

"Keep your mouths closed." Lily instructed her children, "Bugs will fly in."

Lily got her son's attention. "Let's get your things on board Harry." She said, she helped her son drag his trunk on board and then dragged Maya's things on board.

"What do you have in this?" Harry asked before Lily could tell him to be polite. "Bricks?"

"Books." Maya said, she suddenly looked eager. "I love reading, and I've been trying to learn more about the magical world, so when we were in Diagon Alley Dad bought me lots of books."

"Lily," Lily turned as two people spoke her name, Madam Bones was walking up, along with Remus.

"Uncle Moony!" Ariadne darted around to give her godfather a hug.

"Hi Remus, Hello Madam Bones."

"I forgot that it was Harry's first year, its Susan's first year as well." Madam Bones gestured to the young girl at her side.

"Hello Susan." Lily greeted the first year. The girl smiled nervously.

"Hello Mrs. Potter."

"Nervous about starting school?"

Susan nodded shyly. "Yes."

"So is Harry." Lily told the young girl.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who's nervous, will there be a lot of students like me, one's who didn't know they were magic?" Maya asked, she was looking worried as she glanced between Lily and Madam Bones.

"There will be quite a few who didn't know they were magic." Lily said, "I was one of them."

"Really?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah?"

"Will it make a difference, my being Muggleborn?" Lily suddenly remembered asking the same question to Sev.

She shook her head. "No, it won't."

"Have you heard about the Houses?" Susan spoke to Maya.

Maya responded and Lily turned back to Remus who was hugging Harry. "I hope you get the job Uncle Moony." He was saying, remembering that Remus had a job interview later that day.

"Thank you Harry." Remus finished hugging Harry and then smiled as the boy pulled away. "Have fun this year."

Harry grinned, "I will."

More people were entering the station and Lily opened her arms, looking at Harry expectantly. Harry dove into her arms and hugged her tightly. Harry didn't usually get touchy-feely but Lily had been expecting he'd want a hug before he left for Hogwarts.

"Is it okay if I write every day?" Harry asked, "Until I get used to everything?"

"You can write multiple times a day if you need to." Lily promised, "Just don't let it interfere with your school work." Harry nodded and slowly let go of his mother. Ariadne had moved to stand by Lily and Harry wrapped his sister in a hug.

"I'll miss you Ari." Harry said, although there was some noise on the platform, both Lily and Remus could hear what Harry was saying.

"I'll miss you too." Ariadne sounded like she was about to cry. "Write to me too, not just to Mum."

"Promise." Harry said, he suddenly sounded like he had a head cold and Lily bit her lip to keep from crying herself.

Harry and Ariadne finally let go of one another and Lily took her daughter's hand as the nine year old coughed, trying to clear the tears. "Bye Harry, feel free to owl me what house you're in tonight."

"I will." Harry gave his mother another quick hug and then jumped on the train.

"Pay attention in class; work hard on your homework." Lily said, Ariadne coughed again.

"I will."

"Don't get into too much trouble, if you need help, ask Uncle Sev, I already asked him, he said he'd help you if you needed it."

"Okay Mum." Harry said. There suddenly seemed to be a lot of people on the platform and Lily said, "Go find a compartment; I'll wait here until the train leaves though."

"Okay Mum." Harry said. He disappeared and Lily backed up so that other students could enter the train. "Let's see if we can fin the compartment Harry's in." She said to Ariadne.

The nine year old nodded and the two of them began to walk by the train, not even noticing the deep discussion that Remus and Madam Bones seemed to be having.

Lily paused as she could see through the windows of one particular compartment, Susan had already boarded the train, along with Maya, they were sharing a compartment and talking. Harry had knocked and stuck his head in. Both girls turned and then they nodded and Harry sat down next to Susan.

Lily smiled as Remus walked up to her quickly. "Lily, can I borrow some of James' old robes?" He asked, "If you haven't gotten rid of them?"

"Any robes I kept would be in the attic." Lily said, "Why do you need to borrow them?"

"Madam Bones said she needs help in her office, apparently two of her assistants have taken off and left no time to train a replacement. She overheard Harry mention I was trying to find a job and offered me one, it's temporary for now, but it's a job." He took in a breath, "the only thing is, these are the best robes I've got right now, I'll need nicer ones if I'm to work at the Ministry."

"Oh that's wonderful!" Lily said. "Take the floo, you know how to get into the attic."

"Thank you." Remus left then and Lily turned back to Harry's compartment as Harry opened the window and leaned out. "By Mum!" he called, the whistle sounded and Maya crowded next to him. "Thank you for helping me at the platform Mrs. Potter." She said.

"Bye Harry." Lily said, "You're welcome Maya."

There was a rush of students getting on and another boy, a red head poked his head into the compartment, Lily could faintly hear him say "Can I sit here?"

"Yeah." Harry said.

He pulled back into the compartment and then waved good bye. The train whistled again and Lily stepped back as it began to pull out of the station. Ginny Weasley ran by, following the train as far as she could, Ariadne joined her. "Bye Harry!" Ariadne called. "Bye Ron!" Ginny called now.

"It doesn't get any easier." Lily turned to find Molly Weasley standing next to her. Lily suddenly realized she was crying and she quickly wiped the tears. She took Ariadne's hand when her nine year old came back to join her, the girl looked up at her mother. What were they supposed to do now?

* * *

_Please review!_

_Oh, and I couldn't find if Hermione's parents are actually named in the books, so I just made up names, if you know where there's actual names feel free to point me in the right direction!_


	26. Chapter 26

_**My days off are switching constantly now, so let's just say that I'll post one chapter a week. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I love getting reviews and try to reply to them, but that's not always possible. I do love reading them though. :)**_

_**Chapter 26:**_

Lily stirred and woke to find the sun streaming into her bedroom. She glanced at the clock 8:30, _I'll let Ariadne sleep in after last night; she needs all the sleep she can ge_t. Lily got up and started to go about her day, it wasn't long until she got a letter from Harry. He'd owled the night before saying he'd been sorted into Gryffindor, but this letter was a little longer.

**Hogwarts is AWESOME! I can't believe you have to wait so long to go. I can't wait until Ariadne comes; I know she'll have a blast here. Well I just got into trouble with Filch he thought Ron, Neville and I were trying to break into a forbidden corridor but I honestly thought it was the way to the Great Hall. I'll write to Ariadne tomorrow.**

**Harry**

Lily smiled, Harry's writing was very messy, a sure sign he was hurrying. She set the letter on the kitchen table so Ariadne could read it later.

She got out her own parchment; she needed to write to Harry about Ariadne's trip to Saint Mungo's and her attack last night.

**Harry,**

_Yesterday, after you left to go to Hogwarts, I took Ariadne to St. Mungos' for an examination; she's been having trouble breathing and I got worried with all the smoke in the air from the platform. It turns out that she has Asthma; she's not too sick, we've just got to be careful about the air around her and she's got to have an inhaler with her at all times. She's all right; it's just going to take some getting used to. She had an asthma attack last night and it was pretty scary for her._

And so she wrote, writing a brief summary of what the healer at St. Mungo's had told her. Finally she concluded,

_I know you must have a lot of questions, so don't be afraid to send them to me, I'll answer them anytime._

_Mum_

"HOLY MOTHER OF MERLIN!" Harry couldn't help but say; he probably said it a little louder than necessary, but it didn't gain too much attention, Ron started reading the letter over Harry's shoulder, the Weasley twins looked up, and Maya glanced his way, but other then that no one else paid attention to the first year.

"Oh Mate, that sucks." Ron said after finishing the letter.

"Tell me about it." Harry responded as Fred and George wandered over.

"What's wrong Harry?" George asked.

Harry handed the letter over to the twins, they read it and when George looked up there was genuine concern on the twin's face.

"I'm about to write back to Mum, I have a few questions for her." Harry was saying.

"We have a few questions too." George said. Fred looked a bit surprised but then nodded; Ariadne was Ginny's best friend, of course they were going to make sure that she was okay.

Finally, the Weasley boys and Harry had drafted a letter to Lily with questions about Ariadne.

**Mum,**

**Wow, I didn't realize she was so sick, some big brother I am, well the Weasley boys read the letter as well and we all have some questions about Ariadne's asthma:**

**Will her asthma keep her from visiting the Burrow anymore? (George)**

**Does she have to take medication during the day (like every morning/afternoon/night?) (Me)**

**Will she be able to go to Hogwarts? (Me)**

**Will her asthma keep her from playing Quidditch anymore? (Ron)**

**What about me being picked up for Christmas? Will you be able to meet me at the platform? Or will we meet another spot?**

**Harry, Gred, Forge, and Ron.**

_Harry, Gred, Forge, and Ron:_  
_Her asthma won't keep her from visiting the Burrow, but she won't be able to go by floo for a while, we will have to apparate, or fly from now on._

_She doesn't have to take medication at a certain time of day, but we need to keep her inhaler with us at all times in case of an asthma attack; the inhaler will give her the medicine she needs when she has an attack._

_Ariadne will be able to go to Hogwarts she'll just have to make sure she has her inhaler with her._

_She won't be able to play Quidditch for a while but we should have her asthma under control by next summer and she'll be able to play then._

_I'm not sure about picking you up for Christmas; we'll see how much control we have over Ariadne's asthma in December and get back to you._

_Mum / Mrs. Potter_

* * *

Harry thought he was used to people staring at him as he walked by, in Rowena's Village where his family lived people did that all the time. Hogwarts however, was a completely different story. He could hardly go ten feet without somebody either doubling back and staring or poking their heads out of classrooms to get a better look.

One day seemed particularly bad and Harry was trying to get to History of Magic without getting lost but people kept stopping him and asking "Are you Harry Potter? A teacher finally came up to see what the hold up in the hallway was. Harry's eyes widened as he realized who it was. "Uncle Sev!" He recognized his sister's godfather.

"It's Professor." Severus sneered in a voice Harry had never heard from him before. "Get to class." He directed the comment at the hallway full of students. They immediately began to disperse and go to their separate classes. Snape looked down upon Harry, a sneer still on his face. "I'll see you in Potions Mr. Potter." With that he swung around and left the hallway.

Harry stared after him confused, was something wrong with Uncle Sev?

* * *

Friday morning Harry woke with a feeling of dread. He'd originally been looking forward to Potions, not because the subject particularly interested him, but because he knew the teacher. Uncle Sev usually came over several times during the summer and was normally the one Harry went to when he had a serious question about magic. Uncle Sev seemed to prefer adults but had always been polite to Harry. After Wednesday's run in though, Harry wasn't looking forward to Potions at all. He thought about skipping class but then realized that since it was Uncle Sev who was teaching, Mum would know before dinner that he'd skipped and he didn't want to get a Howler so he got up and got dressed anyway.

The first years all gathered in the dungeons after breakfast, waiting for their first potions class to begin. Uncle Sev burst in, scaring all of them. "Wands away. There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in my class." He reached the front of the class, turned around and started taking attendance. When he reached Harry's name however, he paused. Harry thought he'd seen the worst of it on Wednesday when he'd run into his sister's Godfather in the History of Magic hallway. What happened next however was a complete surprise to Harry.

"Harry Potter."

Harry raised his hand saying he was there, but Uncle Sev kept talking. "Ah yes, Harry Potter. Our new – _celebrity_."

Harry was surprised, he'd never heard Uncle Sev talk to him like that before, had Uncle Sev only been nice to him because he was Ariadne's godfather?

Uncle Sev continued to take roll and after he was done, he started in on a lecture. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making." He went on, his voice barely above a whisper. "As there is little foolish wand waving here, many of you will hardly believe that this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes. The delicate power of the liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…. I can teach you hot to bottle fame; brew glory, even put a stopper in death. If you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Harry was surprised he'd never heard Uncle Sev talk like this. "Potter!"

Harry's eyes widened and he gulped, had he done something wrong?

"What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry's mind raced, Mum usually let him help brew potions sometimes, but what did asphodel and wormwood do when combined? _You don't want to take this potion Harry. _He suddenly remembered Mum saying, _It's Draught of Living Death_. "Draught of living death." He said, hoping he was right.

"Correct." Uncle Sev sneered.

He kept asking questions and Harry knew Uncle Sev was testing him for some reason, but testing him for what? And why?

Finally Uncle Sev stopped bombarding Harry with questions and gave Harry a long look. "Two points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter and I'll see you after class."

* * *

_Please Review!_


	27. Chapter 27

_**Here's chapter 27, I'm in the middle of a move so the next chapter might be a few weeks away, sorry in advance if it's slow coming. Enjoy chapter 27!**_

Harry slowly packed up his potion stuff and then waited as his fellow first years left the dungeons. He glanced up at the front of the class where Professor Snape was erasing the chalkboard.

"Professor?" Harry asked quietly as Ron left the classroom, closing the door behind him.

"Yes?"

"Why did you want to see me after class?"

"To explain a few things to you." Uncle Sev said, he turned and Harry recognized this Uncle Sev, the one who was more comfortable with adults but willing to talk to Harry like a grown up.

"What do you need to explain?"

"At school, I'm Professor."

"Okay." Harry nodded, still feeling like he'd done something wrong.

"I know that might take some getting used to, but we can't be…." There was a pause, "as close as we were before you started here."

"Why not?"

"It's hard to explain Harry." Professor Sev said.

"You've told me I was mature for my age, I could probably understand it" Harry accused but at the shake of Professor Sev's head he spoke again. "If you just don't like me…."

"It's not about not liking you Harry, it's about something else."

"What something else?"

"You're too young."

"I thought you were different." Harry said, he swung his bag up onto his shoulder and left the dungeons.

"What'd Snape want to talk to you about?" Ron asked as Harry sat next to him at the Gryffindor table.

"Nothing important." Harry lied; he started eating so that he wouldn't have to answer any other questions.

Harry quickly finished lunch and then went up to Gryffindor Tower to start on the homework he had. He didn't want to do it, but he knew his mum would ask in her next letter if he'd started on the homework due next week. He quickly grabbed the books he'd need to do his Transfiguration homework and went down to the library, while he liked the common room Harry needed to concentrate; he knew he wouldn't be able to in the common room. It seemed like many other students had the same idea Harry did and many of the tables in the library were full, he finally found a seat with the other girl he'd shared a compartment with, Susan. "Excuse me, can I sit here?" He asked. "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure." Susan said, she moved her charms book and a stack of parchment and Harry sat down.

Harry quickly got out parchment but instead of starting on his Transfiguration essay, he began to write a letter to his Mum. He'd written to her earlier in the week, but now he wrote abut the last couple days of classes and then wrote nearly an entire scroll complaining about how Professor Sev had treated him in class and then about their disagreement afterwards.

"If that's how you write essays, could you help me with my History of Magic essay?" Susan asked, as Harry signed his name, he realized that he'd been scribbling furiously.

"I was actually writing to my Mum." Harry said.

"What's it like?" The question caught Harry of guard, and he paused in surprise before asking a question of his own.

"What's what like?"

"Having a mum to write home to." Susan's voice got even quieter.

Harry was still surprised; he hadn't realized that Susan had lost her Mum. "It's nice." He said, he felt he should say something else, but he wasn't sure what he should say so he changed the subject. "Do you have any homework from McGonagall?"

"Yes, our essay is titled, "Why Transfiguration is useful." Susan told him.

"Us too, have you written it already?"

"No, wanna compare notes?"

"Sure." Harry said, he took out his Transfiguration book and the notes he'd taken in class a few days before. Susan too took out her notes and soon they were scribbling away, making sure that their essays didn't sound too similar, as they didn't want to get into trouble.

Soon they had their separate essays finished and Harry realized that he had left his History of Magic book upstairs and he would need it for his essay for Professor Binns.

"It's almost dinnertime; do you want to help each other out with the History of Magic essay afterwards?" Susan suggested,

"Sounds good." They both packed up their separate items before leaving the library. When they left the library, they separated, Harry going upstairs and Susan taking another hallway and what looked like a stairwell going downstairs.

Harry went up to the owlry and found his owl, Hedwig he'd named her, and tied the letter to her leg. "Wait and see if Mum has a response, okay?" He asked. Hedwig hooted and then took off out one of the windows.

Harry then dropped his bag off in Gryffindor Tower and went down to dinner. He sat next to Ron who gave him a weird look. "Where were you this afternoon?"

"Library." Harry said, "I was doing McGonagall's' essay."

"What are you doing homework for now?" Ron asked, "It's not due until Thursday."

"I wanted to get it done while everything was fresh in my mind."

"I thought you weren't like Percy, he spends most of the weekends doing homework too."

Harry's brows furrowed "I'm not like Percy, I just don't like spending all day Sunday doing homework, if I do a little bit each day then I can have more of Sunday off."

Ron shrugged one shoulder, "I guess." He muttered, grabbing a chicken wing and biting into it.

Harry continued to eat, but got up when he noticed Susan getting up and leaving the Great Hall. "I'll be in the library." He said, Maya seemed to have heard him and she got up as well, Harry didn't notice she was following him however, until they were going up the stairs. "I noticed you and that Hufflepuff girl in the Library, have you formed a study group?" Harry turned as he heard Maya's question.

"Not really, this is our first time studying together." He said. "We were going to work on History of Magic, do you want to study with us?"

Maya suddenly looked eager and Harry silently wondered if he would regret asking her. "Oh yes, please." They went up to Gryffindor Tower and both got their History of Magic stuff, as they made their way to the Library, Maya spoke. "I have a question, how would I send a letter by owl?"

"I'll show you, just write your letter out and I'll take you to the owlery." Harry offered, remembering that the girl was muggleborn. Things would be difficult to get used to as she was coming from a different world.

They entered the library and found Susan at the table she and Harry had occupied earlier. Susan looked a little surprised at the addition of Maya but smiled at the girl. "I remember you, we shared a compartment on the train here."

"Yeah, my name is Hermione, but I usually go by Maya." Maya said.

"How did you get Maya out of Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Her-Maya-Knee." Maya pronounced her name out slowly. "My younger sister couldn't pronounce my full name when she was little, I became Maya."

They all settled in and began to work on their essays.

* * *

_Please review!_


	28. Chapter 28

_**So, I move in 2 days but I managed to find a few minutes between packing suitcases and boxes to post, I hope you all enjoy the chapter! Thank you for those who have reviewed so far, I love getting review, I just don't always have the time to respond.**_

_**Chapter 28:**_

Lily yawned as she finished putting the dinner dishes in the dishwasher. She turned it on and began to leave the kitchen, but a tap on the kitchen window made her turn. Hedwig was outside, she quickly opened the window and let her in. Noticing the length of the letter, she gave the owl a treat and opened it up, the first part of the scroll was about his last couple of days of classes, about half way down the scroll though, he changed topics and Lily's jaw tightened as she read how Sev had treated Harry during his first potions class. She'd never expected that Sev would go out of his way to be nice to Harry but this?

Pulling out a bit of parchment, she quickly wrote _Sev, I'd like to talk to you, when can we meet up in Hogsmead?_

She sent the letter off to Sev and then left the letter out so Ariadne could read it in the morning. It wasn't that late so she started to fold a load of laundry, as she was folding some of Ariadne's clothes however, she came across a top she knew was Carrie's. The girl had moved in with Petunia in a new apartment about thirty minutes away nearly two weeks before, apparently Ariadne had borrowed something of Carrie's before her niece had packed her things.

Lily set it aside and continued to fold the laundry; finally her owl came back with a response from Sev. _We can meet up tomorrow if it's convenient for you, why don't we meet up in the Three Broomsticks at four in the afternoon?_

Quickly scribbling on the back, she wrote _That would be fine, I'll see you at four. _She quickly sent her owl off and then kept her window open so that the owl could come in during the night when Sev had taken the response of his leg.

Snow, their dog padded into the kitchen and Lily patted his head. "Go sleep with Ariadne," she yawned. The dog quietly padded upstairs and into her nine year olds room.

She slipped into bed and went to sleep. She woke up early and found a letter, but to her surprise, it wasn't from Sev. It was from Andromeda, "_Asia's been bugging me to have a sleepover with Ariadne, do you want to bring her over for the night and we can go out for drinks later?"_

Lily went to the floo and after throwing some powder in, she stuck her head through, Fantasia was in the parlour and she got the girls attention. "Asia, are your Mum and Dad available?"

"They're in the kitchen, last I checked they were kissing." Asia made a face.

"I need to speak with your mother, could you go get her for me?"

"Sure." Asia abandoned her book and left the parlour.

Several minutes later, Andromeda came in. "Did you get my letter?" She asked, kneeling down.

"Yes, but I was wondering, can I drop Ariadne off at noon, I've got some errands to run, chores to do things like that, we can still meet up for drinks later."

"Sounds good." Andromeda said, "Three Broomsticks at eight?"

"I'll meet you there." Lily said, she turned, "I think I hear Ariadne up, I've gotta go."

"All right, I'll see you later."

Lily drew her head out of the fire and went into the kitchen, where Ariadne was getting some cereal out.

"Fantasia wants to have a sleepover tonight, you want that too?" Lily asked, fully knowing what the answer would be.

"Yeah!" Ariadne said, grinning, "When can I go over to Fantasia's?"

"I'll take you over at noon." Lily said.

Ariadne quickly ate breakfast and then disappeared upstairs to get ready. She tossed a bag down the stairwell and Lily then remembered the top of Carrie's she'd folded the night before. "Ariadne, do you have any more of Carrie's clothes? I'll call Petunia and we can set up a play date for you and Carrie that way you can see her and we can return the clothes she left here."

"I don't think so," Ariadne said, "but I'll check."

Just before noon, Ariadne came downstairs and Lily grabbed the bag her daughter had packed. "We'll be apparating darling." She said, she and Ariadne left the house and went past the anti-apparition wards Lily had set up on the boundaries of their property.

They apperated into the Tonks' street with a quiet pop and went up to the front door. Andromeda opened it, "I was expecting you by floo." She said.

"I can't take floo because of my asthma." Ariadne reminded her.

"Oh that's right." Andromeda said, Fantasia ran down the stairs and grinned at Ariadne,

"Adi, I got some new beading sets, let make jewelry."

Both girls darted upstairs and Lily turned to Andromeda, "Thanks for taking her today, I'll see you later."

Andromeda smiled, "our pleasure, we love having her over."

Lily left the Tonks' and went back home, after starting both a load of dishes and another load of laundry, she waved her wand in the living room and both the duster and vacuum started working on their own.

She went upstairs and started to clean her room, but about half way through dusting one of the bookshelves, an owl flew up to her bedroom window, it was Atticus. She let her owl in and took the new letter off his leg. It was short and in Sev's handwriting, _could we meet earlier? Say 2:30?_

Lily wondered what the time change was about but she quickly sent her Patronus back to Sev with the message that the earlier time was fine and she'd see him later. Her stag leaped from her house and disappeared in the direction of Hogwarts. She realized that she should start getting ready and after a quick shower she dried her hair and brushed it, it was as she was tying it up into a ponytail that she had the sudden idea of dressing up, she was supposed to meet up with Andromeda at the Three Broomsticks, so why not get all dressed up for that, so she didn't have to come back and get ready for her plans with Andromeda?

She pulled out her makeup kit and quickly put make up on, then she did her hair, she tied part of it up in a fancy ponytail and brushed the rest of it out so that it came down to it's full length, midway down her back.

Then she got dressed, she chose her outfit carefully, something that was all right for a night out but still casual enough for a meeting with a friend. She finally settled on an outfit and then realizing that she was now late for her meeting with Sev, she locked up quickly and apperated to Hogsmead.

She entered the Three Broomsticks and looked around for Sev, finally she found him in the back, there were a couple of bottles of butterbeer on the table, one opened. She sat down in the other chair and smiled faintly. "Hi Sev, sorry I'm late." Severus pushed the unopened bottle of butterbeer over to her and she opened it.

Sev stared at her for a moment before responding. "Lily," he swallowed suddenly but kept speaking. "You look nice, pretty, your outfit I mean." Even in the dim lighting, Lily could see that he was blushing slightly, and she suddenly realized that Severus was wearing different colored robes then he normally wore. It had been forever since she'd seen him in anything other then black and these robes looked dark green, with silver pinstripes. She faintly remembered seeing similar fabric in Madam Malkin's the month before when she'd taken Harry to get his Hogwarts robes.

"Thank you, I've got plans later, I wasn't sure if I would have much time between meeting with you and my other plans." She explained.

Severus face twitched slightly, and Lily wasn't even sure if she'd actually seen it but when Severus spoke he was calm. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Harry wrote me about his first potions class. I want to hear your side of the story though, before I respond to my son."

Sev blinked, but other then that, he gave no response for a moment. "I did ask Harry some difficult questions at the beginning of class, but…" there was a pause and Severus looked over at Lily quietly.

"But…" Lily finally prompted him.

Sev leaned forward a little, and lowered his voice. "Several things have happened in the past few months that…" There was a pause again. When Severus spoke again he was obviously choosing his words with care. "That, to Professor Dumbledore, make it look like the Dark Lord is trying to…" There was another pause.

"He wants to come back." Although Lily was guessing, it came out as a statement.

"That's what Albus believes and I as a Death Eater…"

"Former." Lily interrupted. Severus' jaw tightened a little but he kept speaking as if Lily hadn't spoken.

"And a spy for the Order, I'll be expected to slip back into that part if or when the Dark Lord comes back, and as a Death Eater…"

"Former death Eater." Lily corrected again.

What Severus did next surprised even him; he reached across the table and laid one hand over Lily's. She was gripping her butterbeer bottle and he laid one hand over hers, his touch was gentle but firm. "The only way out of being a Death Eater is death Lily." He released her hand and continued talking. "As a Death Eater I need to be careful about the public relationship that Harry and I have." Severus took in a breath. "For his, yours and Ariadne's safety…."

* * *

A couple of hours later, Severus and Lily finally finished at the Three Broomsticks, Lily glanced over to Sev as they began walked out. As they reached the door, Lily touched Severus' arm, "Sev?"

He turned looking into her eyes, "Yes Lily?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Lily turned Sev to that they were facing each other, her face getting more serious. "Sev really, you're wonderful to think about Harry and Ariadne's safety like that." She suddenly went up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to Severus' cheek. "You're good to us." There was a faint smile and Severus felt his stomach swoop. One of Lily's hands lightly griped his bicep for a moment, "Thank you for everything you've done, I wish there was a way to repay you for everything."

"You don't have to worry about that Lily, I don't expect any kind of repayment, I'm just helping a friend, you would do the same thing if I were in your shoes." Severus said, one of his hands came up and gently squeezed her elbow before he let go and left the Three Broomsticks.

* * *

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